President Joe Biden said that China's economic challenges have taken a toll and make it less likely to consider an invasion of Taiwan to force its unification with the mainland.
said Sunday that the economic challenges facing China are making a potential invasion of Taiwan less likely.
"I don’t think this is going to cause China to invade Taiwan," Biden said regarding the economic challenges facing China. "As a matter of fact, the opposite, it probably doesn’t have the same capacity that it had before." Xi and other Chinese officials have repeatedly declined to rule out the use of force to bring about Taiwan’s "reunification" with the People’s Republic of China. Taiwan’s role as a leading producer of high-end semiconductors that power much of the world economy makes it an attractive target for China.
Biden said China’s economic situation is a "crisis" and cited issues with the country’s real estate sector and high youth unemployment. "One of the major economic tenets of his plan isn’t working at all right now," Biden said of Xi. "I’m not happy for that, but it’s not working."