China Seeks Strategic Naval Bases In Africa To Project Power

The PLA's mandate for securing Chinese global interests is expanding rapidly, with an active focus on Africa, which has a large coastline along both the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The PLA's ‘strategic task’ in 2015 was to protect ‘overseas interests’ and PLA is actively developing 'overseas logistical facilities, according to the 2015 defence white paper.

Beijing's first overseas military base in Djibouti in 2017, as well as a potential military base in the United Arab Emirates and Chinese investment in a Cambodian military base, demonstrate Beijing's desire to project power globally.

China has sent over 40 naval task forces to Africa and has escorted over 7,000 Chinese and foreign ships. The PLA also conducts port calls, joint military drills and offshore military education to improve interoperability, knowledge of foreign forces, surveillance and intelligence skills across Africa at a low cost.

This puts it in a good position for future tasks. The US Department of Defence stated in its 2021 report that China may have considered military installations in as many as 13 African countries, including Angola, Kenya, Seychelles, Namibia and Tanzania, to increase its military presence in Africa. Chinese state-owned shippers have constructed, financed, or are currently operating 46 African ports.

Beijing has reached out to Mozambique about establishing a naval base in Beira, which would allow China to conduct trade with Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. According to media report, China is also looking into establishing a military base in Mozambique's Maputo Province's Katembe area.

Concurrently, Chinese markets are critical to the Equatorial Guinean economy. China is the most important market for Equatoguinean exports. In recent years, Equatorial Guinea's debt to China was estimated to be 49.7 per cent of GDP. Equatorial Guinea was the first African country to receive Chinese vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic.

China expressed interest in constructing a naval base in Bata (Equatorial Guinea) in 2021 to support and safeguard Chinese investments, oil and other commercial interests, particularly in African countries along the Atlantic coast, including South Africa, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.

Equatorial Guinea can provide China with fixed-wing aircraft airfields. The country also has three airfields that can support heavy-lift cargo planes, one of which is near the Port of Bata.

According to people familiar with the situation, Beijing could easily upgrade deep-water ports in Bata and Malabo for military purposes. The Export-Import Bank of China funded the initial construction of the Port of Bata in 2006, which was completed in 2014 by the state-owned China Communications Construction’s First Harbor Engineering.The port was upgraded by the China Road and Bridge, another state-owned enterprise.

Along Africa's eastern coast, China is eager to resume expansion work at Tanzania's Bagamoyo Port, for which it has allocated USD 1.3 billion. If China is successful in establishing naval bases in Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea, it is possible that more African ports will be converted into naval bases.