China’s President Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, warns CIA director William Burns

• Burns said Xi’s ambition towards Taiwan should not be underestimated
• He said the US knew ‘as a matter of intelligence’ of the Chinese leader’s order

China’s President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, the director of the CIA has warned.

Speaking on Thursday, William Burns said Xi’s ambitions toward Taiwan should not be underestimated, despite him likely being sobered by the performance of Russia’s military in Ukraine, which has suffered several embarrassing setbacks.

Burns said the United States knew ‘as a matter of intelligence’ that Xi had ordered his military to be ready to invade the island in four years’ time.

‘Now, that does not mean that he’s decided to conduct an invasion in 2027, or any other year, but it’s a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition,’ he told an event at Georgetown University in Washington.

‘Our assessment at CIA is that I wouldn’t underestimate President Xi’s ambitions with regard to Taiwan,’ he said, adding that the Chinese leader was likely ‘surprised and unsettled’ and trying to draw lessons by the ‘very poor performance’ of the Russian military and its weapons systems in Ukraine.

China’s President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027, the director of the CIA has warned. Pictured: Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers during military training at Pamir Mountains in Kashgar, northwestern China’s Xinjiang region

Speaking on Thursday, CIA director William Burns said Xi’s (pictured) ambitions toward Taiwan should not be underestimated, despite him likely being sobered by the performance of Russia’s military in Ukraine, which has suffered several embarrassing setbacks.

Russia and China signed a ‘no limits’ partnership last February shortly before Russian forces invaded Ukraine, and their economic links have boomed as Russia’s connections with the West have shriveled.

The Russian invasion had fueled concerns in the West of China possibly making a similar move on Taiwan, a democratic island Beijing says is its territory.

China has refrained from condemning Russia’s operation against Ukraine, but it has been careful not to provide the sort of direct material support which could provoke Western sanctions like those imposed on Moscow.

‘I think it’s a mistake to underestimate the mutual commitment to that partnership, but it’s not a friendship totally without limits,’ Burns said.

As Burns spoke, news came from U.S. officials that a suspected Chinese spy balloon had been flying over the United States for a few days, and that senior U.S. officials had advised President Joe Biden against shooting it down for fear the debris could pose a safety threat.

Burn made no mention of the episode but called China the ‘biggest geopolitical challenge’ currently faced by the United States.

‘Competition with China is unique in its scale, and that it really, you know, unfolds over just about every domain, not just military, and ideological, but economic, technological, everything from cyberspace, to space itself as well. 

‘It’s a global competition in ways that could be even more intense than competition with the Soviets was,’ he said.

Burns said the United States knew ‘as a matter of intelligence’ that Xi had ordered his military to be ready to invade the island in four years’ time.

Pictured: A map showing China’s likely tactics when it comes to an invasion of Taiwan

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There was no immediate comment from China’s Washington embassy about the remarks from Burns or the balloon flight.

Burns said the next six months will be ‘critical’ for Ukraine, where Moscow has been making incremental gains in recent weeks.

He also said Iran’s government was increasingly unsettled by affairs within the country, citing the courage of what he described as ‘fed up’ Iranian women.

Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned that a Russian victory in Ukraine would embolden China to potentially invade Taiwan.

NATO today raised concerns of a nuclear alliance between Russia, China and North Korea that would ‘challenge the world order’.

Burns’ comments came a day after Taiwan scrambled fighter jets, put its navy on alert and activated missile systems in response to large-scale manoeuvres of 34 Chinese military aircraft and nine warships in the Taiwan Strait.

Beijing on Wednesday instructed its air force and navy to perform a major operation which saw 20 Chinese aircraft cross the central line of the Strait.

The line has long been seen as a buffer zone between the island nation and mainland China, according to Taiwanese defence officials.

It was the latest escalation of tensions between the two states and comes after weeks of Chinese military drills close to Taiwanese air space, leading Taipei and its US allies to be wary of a potential blockade or outright attack.

‘Our assessment at CIA is that I wouldn’t underestimate President Xi’s ambitions with regard to Taiwan,’ William Burns (pictured speaking on Thursday) said, adding that the Chinese leader was likely ‘surprised and unsettled’ and trying to draw lessons by the ‘very poor performance’ of the Russian military and its weapons systems in Ukraine

China’s alarming military manoeuvres came just hours after foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning declared Beijing ‘does not promise to renounce the use of force’ in its efforts to reunify. 

Taiwan has been governed independently from mainland China since a 1949 civil war, but President Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party claims the island is part of ‘One China’ and has made no bones about its intention to reclaim the territory. 

Beijing has accusing Taiwan of using the US and other Western allies to bolster its efforts to maintain independence, and insists the US is manipulating Taiwan to ‘contain’ Chinese influence.

Taiwanese support for independence meanwhile is overwhelming. According to a December 2022 poll conducted by the National Chengchi University, less than three percent of Taiwanese citizens wants to reunify with China immediately, and only five percent think Taiwan should unify at some point in the future. 

A string of visits in recent months by foreign politicians to Taiwan, including by then-US house speaker Nancy Pelosi and numerous politicians from the European Union, spurred displays of military might from both sides. 

Meanwhile, China said on Friday that it is looking into reports that a Chinese spy balloon has been flying in U.S. airspace and urged calm, adding that it has ‘no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country.’

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