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The U.S. CIA Director warned that he wouldn’t underestimate Xi Jinping‘s ambitions to seize control of Taiwan.
What Happened: The U.S. top intel chief Bill Burns during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on Thursday said Beijing had not decided on whether to take military action for “reunification” with Taipei, where China claims sovereignty.
Burns, a former U.S. diplomat, added that he would not “underestimate the ambition of the current Chinese leadership in that regard or the determination.”
At the same hearing, Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence, also warned that a war over Taiwan would have a massive impact on the global economy and the supply of semiconductors. Haines added that the Treasury, Commerce and other U.S. government departments had examined the potential effect.
“Studies show that it would actually have absolutely enormous implications for the global financial economy if there were disruption to Taiwan’s semiconductor production because really…Taiwan, the semiconductors, the chips that come out of Taiwan, are present in virtually every category of electronic devices around the world,” Haines said.
Late last month, Burns said Vladimir Putin‘s botched war in Ukraine had fueled doubts for the Chinese President that his military could successfully invade Taiwan. However, Xi has repeatedly talked about taking the threat of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan seriously.
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