(FiveNation.com)- Last week, after supposed Russian intelligence claimed that Xi Jinping had scuttled plans to annex Taiwan this coming fall, Taiwan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu wouldn’t discuss the authenticity of the so-called intelligence only saying Taiwan would have to be prepared regardless.
While addressing the legislature’s defense committee last Wednesday, Wu said he was aware of the media reports about this alleged FSB “whistleblower’s” claims, but added that he wasn’t able to verify the authenticity of the details. Wu confirmed that Taiwan’s intelligence services were closely monitoring chatter.
The document was included in a leaked report published earlier this month by Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin, a human rights lawyer living in France.
The leaked report, believed to be written by a whistleblower in the Russian FSB, claims the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been a “total failure” and warned that Russia has “no way out” of the conflict.
The report also warned that 10,000 Russian troops have already been killed in combat. That is far higher than the official death count released by the Russian defense ministry.
This whistleblower also told Osechkin that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine has put Beijing in a difficult position. With the West united against Russia, China would have a difficult time offering its support to Moscow.
What’s more, this whistleblower claimed, Xi Jinping had tentatively planned to “capture” Taiwan in the fall to give himself a victory before the CCP votes on whether to give Xi a third term. But with Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, that “window of opportunity” to invade Taiwan has been slammed shut. The whistleblower claimed that now the US can blackmail Xi Jinping while negotiating with his political rivals.
The so-called whistleblower concludes that with the invasion of Ukraine, Putin put Xi into a corner and forced him to scuttle his fall invasion plans.
Nobody has authenticated these documents and the contents directly contradict Taiwan’s own intelligence on China’s plans.
Last fall, Taiwan’s Chief of Intelligence Chen Ming-tong told lawmakers that any attack from China wasn’t likely to happen in the next three years.