ramifications beyond ukraine. and happening with xi jinping, looks like another unprecedented term. and secretary of state says he thinks china accelerated its planning to try to take back taiwan. what does he see? what do you think is happening there? well, we ve got these two authoritarian leaders. putin, made it his life goal to kind of rebuild the old soviet empire, taking on ukraine. xi clearly in the last stage of his career wants to reunify taiwan. i think a lot of leaders in the chinese economy on the economic side probably are not william xi is. the competition, stepped up on semiconductors recently. stepped up on 5g and wireless. my committee is looking as advanced energy, synthetic biology. never faced and economic
allies throughout the pacific president xi very much considers there to be an 18 month timetable for which it is an opportunity to try and reunify taiwan into mainland china. i think it s that longer concern that we should be dealing with. and why we need to be arming taiwan now in preparation for that event walt. martha: let me ask you this. it reminds me in some ways of what we saw around ukraine right before the invasion of ukraine by russia and we also heard in that situation that they were just doing military exercises, even to the point where some of their own soldiers thought they were just there to do military exercises and a longer time frame that it would play out and we saw putin go right in. why shouldn t we think we may be seeing a similar situation
injapan for his first visit to asia since becoming president, and his first summit with america s asian allies since the russian invasion of ukraine. in tokyo he will hold summit talks with the prime ministers of japan, india and australia. the fallout from ukraine appears set to dominate discussions, but many are now focusing on china s territorial ambitions, particularly its claim on taiwan. many analysts believe china s massive military gives beijing the ability to invade taiwan and defeat the us and its allies if they try to intervene. our correspondent rupert wingfield hayes sent this report from tokyo. this is something that hasn t been seen since world war ii, a fighterjet landing on board a japanese aircraft carrier. yes, japan has an aircraft carrier, and soon it will have a0 of these jets to put on board.
so this is the period that everybody is most concerned that china will have conventional military advantage. and could be tempted to use it. as they meet in tokyo this week, the challenge for the us and its allies is how do they make it clear to president xi jinping that despite his newly acquired military might, using force to take taiwan would be just as much a disasterfor him as invading ukraine has been for president putin? rupert wingfield hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. it throws up a lot of questions, doesn t it? barry pavel is the senior vice president and director of the scowcroft centre for strategy and security at the atlantic council, he joins us now from washington. thanks very much indeed for your time. thanks very much indeed for yourtime. i don t thanks very much indeed for your time. i don t think many people would doubt that china has the military might to push
wonder, were china to do something in let s say the next two years as long as perhaps joe biden is still president, with the us intervene? because thatis with the us intervene? because that is a huge question that needs answering. that is a huge question that needs answering. yes, and so one certainly needs answering. yes, and so one certainly cannot - needs answering. yes, and so one certainly cannot rule - needs answering. yes, and so one certainly cannot rule out. needs answering. yes, and so| one certainly cannot rule out a chinese invasion. i personally think a military heavy invasion at this point, after what we have seen in ukraine is very unlikely but you can t rule it out and the us would undoubtedly come to the defence of taiwan with its allies including japan because if it did not, if taiwan was lost, it would give the chinese leadership a new strategic advantage from which the united states and its allies would have a very, very hard time recovering. have a very, very ha