CIA Director Bill Burns said that China is closely monitoring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and is likely altering its long-term plans for obtaining control of Taiwan based on the lessons learned..

“Clearly the Chinese leadership is trying to look carefully at what lessons they should draw from Ukraine about their own ambitions and Taiwan,” Burns told a Financial Times conference.

Burns believes Beijing has been “surprised” by Russia’s military forces’ poor performance as well as the strong opposition from Ukrainian society as a whole.

“I think they’ve been struck by the way in which particularly the transatlantic alliance has come together to impose economic costs on Russia as a result of that aggression,” he continued.

Beijing has been “unsettled by the fact that what Putin has done is to drive Europeans and Americans closer together,” Burns said.

“What conclusions get drawn from all that remains a question mark,” he said.

“I think the Chinese leadership is looking very carefully at all this, at the costs and consequences of any effort to use force to gain control over Taiwan.”

Taiwan is constantly threatened with invasion by Beijing, which regards the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary.

China has increased pressure on Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president in 2016, arguing that the island is a sovereign entity separate from Chinese territory.