Taiwan: CIA chief warns Beijing looks determined to use force to take the island

Name: CIA chief says Beijing appears determined to ‘use force to control Taiwan’
Uploaded: 2022-07-21T07:57:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 14 s
Description: CIA chief says Beijing appears determined to ‘use force to control Taiwan’

Agency director William Burns says it’s a matter of when and how – not whether – mainland China will attack the island

Russia’s war in Ukraine has taught Beijing it needs to ‘amass overwhelming force’ to attempt a similar move, he says

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CIA director Bill Burns says Beijing has been “unsettled” by Russia’s war in Ukraine. Photo: EPA-EFE

Agence France-Presse

Published: 3:57pm, 21 Jul 2022Updated: 12:50am, 22 Jul 2022

Mainland China appears determined to use force in Taiwan, with Russia’s experience in Ukraine affecting Beijing’s calculations on when and how – not whether – to attack, the head of the CIA said on Wednesday.

Appearing at the Aspen Security Forum, Central Intelligence Agency director William Burns said that Beijing had likely seen in Ukraine that “you don’t achieve quick, decisive victories with underwhelming force”.

He played down speculation that Chinese President Xi Jinping could move on the island after a key Communist Party meeting later this year but said the risks “become higher, it seems to us, the further into this decade that you get”.

“I wouldn’t underestimate President Xi’s determination to assert China’s control” over the self-ruling island, he said.

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CIA chief says Beijing appears determined to ‘use force to control Taiwan’

Burns said that Beijing was “unsettled” when looking at Russia’s five-month-old war in Ukraine, which he characterised as a “strategic failure” for Russian President Vladimir Putin as he had hoped to topple the Kyiv government within a week.

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