Natalia Chi
CIA Director William Burns said this week that he had information indicating that Chinese President Xi Jinping had directed an invasion of Taiwan to be “prepared to be successful by 2027,” but that President Xi He warned that it was not clear whether he had actually decided to use military force to unify.
“The CIA’s assessment cannot underestimate Xi’s ambitions with regard to Taiwan,” Burns said, adding that Xi is looking “very carefully” at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s experience in Ukraine. , added, “I walked away a little upset.” Calm down by Moscow’s performance on the battlefield”.
“We know he directed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready for a successful invasion by 2027,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean he’s decided to make an invasion in 2027 or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and ambition.”
Burns made a public statement while accepting an award at Georgetown University on Thursday.
news Chinese surveillance balloon Drifting in US airspace first appeared during the event, but the CIA director did not directly address the development. The CIA declined to comment on Friday’s balloon, deferring inquiries to the Pentagon.
Burns, a former career diplomat who took command of the CIA in March 2021, said during his tenure that 2 new mission centers In an institution focused on Chinese and foreign technological challenges. The Mission Center in China is currently the CIA’s only country-specific mission center.
On Thursday, he said China will remain the “greatest geopolitical challenge” the United States will face in the coming decades, and that new technologies will be the “main arena” in competing with Beijing. repeated.
“The competition with China is unique in its scale in that it plays out not only in military and ideological terms, but in nearly every field, from economics and technology to cyberspace to space itself,” Barnes said.
He stressed the importance of the United States accelerating the development of its own technological capabilities and deepening alliances abroad. I was ironic that it was.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced it would expand the US military presence in the Philippines. From there, US troops could be deployed to Taiwan more quickly.
Burns said on Thursday that effective deterrence of armed conflict in the Taiwan Strait remains a top priority, especially as tensions in the region rise.
“As a matter of U.S. policy, I think it is in our great interest to make clear our commitment to the status quo and our lack of interest as a country in changing the status quo. , especially those who use force to change it,” he said, adding that the dispute over Taiwan was “extremely regrettable to all involved, including China.”
