CIA Director: China has been paying 'careful attention' to Russia's poor military performance in Ukraine

CIA Director Bill Burns said in an interview with PBS that no other foreign leader "has paid more careful attention to that war and Russia's poor military performance than Xi Jinping has," as he thinks about his own ambitions in Taiwan and elsewhere. Burns added that it's been interesting to watch the Chinese leadership's reaction to the war in Ukraine, as China's leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have formed a close partnership over recent years.

"A few weeks before Putin launched his invasion in Ukraine when they met at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, they proclaimed a friendship without limits," Burns was quoted as saying. "...It turns out that there actually are some limits to that partnership, at least in terms of President Xi's reluctance to supply the kind of military assistance to Putin that he's asked for in the course of the war in Ukraine."

Burns added that the U.S. does not see any indication the Russians "are serious... about a real negotiation" with Ukraine.