'Absolutely credible' Xi Jinping will take Taiwan by force during his leadership

It is "absolutely credible" to say that President Xi Jinping's primary purpose for his military is to have the capability to take Taiwan by force and will likely occur during his leadership, according to the ASPI's Michael Shoebridge.

"If you wanted to know what the first priority that Xi Jinping has for his military - it's to have a military capability to take Taiwan by force. That's the first thing to bear in mind," he told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.

"Second thing is that he's said publicly, that solving Taiwan and unifying it with the mainland is not a problem that can be passed onto the next generation - it's a problem that the current generation, i.e. during his term of leadership, must solve.

"So it's absolutely credible that China could do this, but there are things we can do to deter them."