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Beijing [China]March 8 (ANI): In a startling disclosure of intelligence inputs, CIA Director William Burns claimed that Beijing was still determining whether its potential invasion of Taiwan would be successful.
He said U.S. intelligence showed Chinese President Xi Jinping had instructed his country’s military to “be ready by 2027” to invade Taiwan.
However, he may have doubts about his ability to do so, given Russia’s experience with the invasion of Ukraine — which could exacerbate doubts among Chinese leader Xi Jinping and senior military officials about the success of the Chinese military’s invasion of Taiwan.
In a television interview that aired on February 26, Burns said, “We do know, as has been made public, that Chairman Xi has directed the Chinese military leadership, the PLA, to prepare to invade Taiwan by 2027, but that doesn’t mean He has decided to invade in 2027 or any other year.”
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“I think our judgment is at least that President Xi and his military leaders are skeptical today about whether they will be able to pull off that invasion,” he said. However, he added that the US must take Xi Jinping’s desire to eventually control Taiwan “very seriously”, even if a military conflict is not inevitable.
Burns said support for Ukraine from the United States and European allies could be a potential deterrent to Chinese officials following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but he said the risk of a possible attack on Taiwan would only increase.
“I think when they look at Putin’s experience in Ukraine, it probably reinforces some of those misgivings,” Burns said. You go into this decade and grow beyond it, and into the next decade and grow. So that’s obviously, we’re watching very, very carefully.”
U.S. and European aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion showed Western solidarity, Burns said, and the Chinese Communist Party may have taken that into account. “I don’t think any foreign leader has looked more closely at Putin’s experience in Ukraine, the evolution of the war than Xi Jinping. I think he’s disturbed in many ways by what he’s seeing,” Burns said. He (Xi Jinping) was surprised by Russia’s very poor military performance. I think he was also amazed by the level of solidarity and support for Ukraine in the West. “
Burns also said that not only the United States, but also European allies are willing to bear a certain economic price in order to cause greater economic losses to Russia over time, “so I think all this is to a certain extent Xi Jinping is sober.”
The Taiwan issue is one of the factors causing tension in US-China relations. The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. is dramatically increasing the number of troops deployed in Taiwan, more than quadrupling its current strength, to bolster its training program for Taiwan’s military. The United States plans to deploy 100 to 200 troops to Taiwan in the coming months, according to U.S. officials; a year ago, the number was about 30. The additional troop presence would expand a training program the Pentagon has been reluctant to make public as the United States seeks to give Taiwan the capabilities it needs to defend itself.
The report also said that the United States and Taiwan have expanded training for Taiwanese officers and soldiers, indicating that the United States is increasingly committed to helping Taiwan, a close partner, prepare for defeating a potential invasion by the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials said plans to expand the presence of troops in Taiwan had been in the works for months, even before this month’s balloon incident further soured U.S.-China relations. In the balloon incident, a Chinese spy balloon was shot down by U.S. warplanes over the South Carolina coast after flying over U.S. airspace. (Arnie)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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