The CIA warned that the Chinese regime could attack Taiwan in the coming years

William Burns assured that Xi Jinping would have instructed his military leadership to be ready in 2027 to launch an eventual war

CIA chief William Burns has claimed that the Chinese regime could attack Taiwan in the coming years, claiming that President Xi Jinping is “preparing for war” in his ambition to unify the island to Chinese territory.

Asked in an interview with the PBG network, Burns stressed that, despite the fact that China has publicly insisted on its intention to control Taiwan by peaceful means, it would also have instructed its military leadership to be prepared in 2027 to launch an eventual war. .

“I’m not sure I measure it in terms of months or a year. The honest answer is that the further into this decade we go, the greater the risks of a military conflict,” said the CIA chief.

He stressed that the CIA’s priority is not just how a conflict might affect Taiwan, but also how it would influence “the long-term geopolitical challenge posed by Xi’s China.”

“Over the course of the two years I’ve been director, we’ve established a new mission center, which is sort of the CIA organizational bloc. It is the only single-country mission center that we have, centered in China. We have dedicated resources, personnel and priorities in that direction, because this is a global competition, ”he added.

He recalled that Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have formed a “quite close” partnership in recent years. “A few weeks before Putin launched his invasion of the Ukraine, when they met at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, they proclaimed their friendship without limits,” Burns said.

In this regard, he argued that no foreign leader would have paid more attention than Xi Jinping to the war in Ukraine as well as “Russia’s poor military performance,” as it would serve as inspiration for his own ambitions in Taiwan.

The CIA chief also considered, in line with previous statements by Washington, that China, despite its verbal support, does not provide military support to Russia in its war in Ukraine.

“China draws conclusions from Russia’s war in Ukraine that it is inclined to use force against Taiwan, so the question is not if it will invade but when and how,” Burns added.

The United States is concerned by Beijing’s increased military pressure in recent years against Taiwan, a democratic island that China considers part of its territory and aims to one day recapture.

At the beginning of December, the Taiwan government warned that the Chinese regime is looking for new pretexts to carry out military maneuvers around the island, which Beijing claims as its own territory and which is a growing source of friction between the Asian giant and the United States. Joined.

The Chinese military threat is now “more serious than ever,” Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said in an interview with The Guardian. As he reviewed, Beijing’s warplane incursions into Taiwan’s defense zone have multiplied by five since 2020.

“We are pretty sure that the Chinese may want to use another pretext to practice their future attacks on Taiwan. So this is a military threat against Taiwan,” Wu said.

The minister considered that the Chinese regime is putting pressure on Taiwan in ways other than military, with strategies such as economic pressure, cyber attacks and diplomatic efforts to isolate Taipei.