China sees 'much faster timeline' on taking Taiwan, Blinken warns

China’s government is pursuing its plans to annex Taiwan on a “much faster timeline” under Xi Jinping, the US secretary of state has said

Beijing wants to seize Taiwan "on a much faster timeline" than previously considered, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, warning that President Xi Jinping was leading China in a more aggressive direction.

Mr. Xi is on the cusp of securing a third five-year term at the helm of the world's most populous nation, delivering a landmark Communist Party Congress speech on Sunday that hailed his decade in power and restated his vow to one day "reunify," or forcefully take, Taiwan.

"We've seen a very different China emerge in recent years under Xi Jinping's leadership," Mr. Blinken told a forum at Stanford University with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It is more repressive at home; it's more aggressive abroad. And in many instances that poses a challenge to our own interests as well as to our own values," he added.

Mr. Blinken accused Mr. Xi of "creating tremendous tension" by changing the approach toward self-ruled Taiwan, which China's Communist Party has never controlled but claims as its own.

He said China had made a "fundamental decision that the status quo was no longer acceptable, and that Beijing was determined to pursue reunification on a much faster timeline," though he gave no hard estimate or date.

Senior U.S. military figures have previously sounded the alarm that China has expanded its military forces to the point where it could soon have the capability to pull off an invasion of Taiwan.