TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has said he believes China will not attack Taiwan in the next 10 years.

On the CNN program Fareed Zakaria GPS on Sunday (Nov. 21), Kissinger said, “I don’t expect an all-out attack on Taiwan in, say, a 10-year period, which is as far as I can see.” However, he predicted China will likely “take measures that will weaken the Taiwanese ability to appear substantially autonomous.”

Kissinger said that being a “China hawk” has become mainstream and noted that “everyone assumes that China is determined to dominate the world and that that is its primary objective.” He said that he believes the U.S. and China do not necessarily have to be hostile competitors, calling the recent Biden-Xi virtual summit a “turn to a different path."

The former secretary of state served under President Richard Nixon and visited China twice in 1971. He played a major role in making Nixon’s 1972 China trip possible and helped establish diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing in 1979.