Express, by James Walker: Chinese President Xi Jinping has told his army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027 – but has doubts about Chinese chances as Russia has floundered in Ukraine, a US Intel chief has claimed. CIA Director William Burns also warned that the West had to take Chinese threats over Taiwan “very seriously”.
Speaking to CBS’ Face the Nation show on Sunday, Mr. Burns said: “We do know, as has been made public, that President Xi has instructed the PLA, the Chinese military leadership, to be ready by 2027 to invade Taiwan, but that doesn’t mean that he’s decided to invade in 2027 or any other year as well.
“I think our judgment at least is that President Xi and his military leadership have doubts today about whether they could accomplish that invasion.”
The Intel chief also said he was confident that China was planning to supply Russia with weapons.
“We also don’t see that a final decision has been made yet, and we don’t see actual evidence of shipments of lethal equipment.”
Mr. Burns gave his bombshell TV interview as tensions continued to flare between the US, China and Russia over Ukraine and infringements on US airspace.
A suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina, sparking a war of words between Beijing and Washington.
Chinese officials have repeatedly denied that the device was a spy balloon, and claim the US was just overreacting to a weather balloon.
But the US has threatened to shoot down any similar Chinese devices that enter its airspace in the future as they continue to analyse the balloon.
A Pentagon official’s visit to Taiwan after the spy balloon saga prompted a similarly stark warning from Beijing.
Chinese government spokesperson Zhu Fenglian told reporters any US attempt to help Taiwan is “doomed to failure”.
The spokesperson added that the Chinese Communist Party “resolutely opposes any official interaction and military collaboration” between the two countries.
The island democracy has received numerous displays of official American support as China threatens invasion, claiming Taiwan as part of its territory.
President Joe Biden has said that American forces would defend Taiwan if China tries to invade.
Prophetic Link:
“We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events. Prophecies are fulfilling. Strange, eventful history is being recorded in the books of heaven. Everything in our world is in agitation. There are wars and rumors of wars. The nations are angry, and the time of the dead has come, that they should be judged. Events are changing to bring about the day of God, which hasteth greatly. Only a moment of time, as it were, yet remains. But while already nation is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, there is not now a general engagement. As yet the four winds are held until the servants of God shall be sealed in their foreheads. Then the powers of earth will marshal their forces for the last great battle.” Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 6, page 14.1.