– Our opinion is that the question that is affected is not whether the Chinese authorities may in a few years choose to use force to control Taiwan, but rather how and when they will do it, says Bill Burns to the security forum in Aspen on Wednesday.
The statement came in response to a question about what lessons China has learned from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
According to Burns, China has become uneasy after witnessing Russia’s five-month war, which he himself characterizes as a strategic blunder by President Vladimir Putin, who had hoped to overthrow the government in Kyiv within the first week of the war.
– I suspect that the lesson China has taken with it is that they must gather an overwhelming military force to be able to assess it in the future, says Burns.
China considers the island nation of Taiwan to be part of Chinese territory.
(©NTB)
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