TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Tibetan leader Penpa Tsering said China would not launch a military conflict with Taiwan unless the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was facing extinction, reports said Wednesday (June 28).

Penpa was elected Sikyong or prime minister of the Central Tibetan Administration in India in 2021. He was speaking in New Delhi on Tuesday (June 27) at a seminar hosted by the Center for China Analysis and Strategy, CNA reported.

The priority for China’s leaders was to maintain their hold on power, and launching a war against Taiwan or India at this time was too risky, according to Penpa. Only if CCP rule was directly endangered, were they likely to resort to violence and aggression against Taiwan to try and defuse domestic tension, he said.

The Tibetan leader-in-exile also cautioned other countries to be more careful about their trade relations with China. The world had raised a giant dragon feeding on trade surpluses, but it had no way of controlling that dragon’s actions, Penpa said.