China Port Construction in Africa Raises Concern About Military Use

China watchers are monitoring work by government-owned development companies to construct, spend money on or function new or upgraded ports in Africa for potential future use in army operations, together with Lekki in Nigeria, Kribi in Cameroon, Bata in Equatorial Guinea and Bagamoyo in Tanzania.
 
The China-backed ports have design options appropriate for each industrial and army makes use of. Chinese language corporations have constructed and/or financed 78 ports in 32 African international locations.

“No less than seven Chinese language-backed ports in Africa have design options that make them able to berthing Chinese language naval amenities though they could not have been created particularly for this objective,” Paul Nantulya, analysis affiliate and China analyst on the Nationwide Protection College Africa Heart for Strategic Research in Washington, D.C., advised ENR.

He cited the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia that may home as much as eight guided missile destroyers, and the port of Luwanda in Angola able to internet hosting any main Chinese language floor combatant vessel. The Indian Ocean port of Victoria within the Seychelles may also host as much as two Chinese language corvettes, whereas Djibouti already hosts a Chinese language army base, Nantulya mentioned.

He cited 4 options that make a port appropriate for army use—important sea depth, safe location, absolutely built-in operations functionality and adequate involvement of Chinese language corporations in development, monetary and even port operations.

A 2024 analysis paper by the London-based Royal United Providers Institute is extra particular. 

“China can be guaranteeing {that a} important quantity of its port development is being accomplished to a ‘twin port use specification’ to keep away from Western suspicion of naval buildup,” it mentioned. “Chinese language-funded ports are constructed to accommodate industrial commerce, however can—with important dangers and problems—be flipped to army use as depth and touchdown and docking zones are constructed to [military] specs.”

Satellite tv for pc imagery of the Mombasa, Kenya port revealed that its 245-meter-long military-grade dock may berth two corvettes and any floor combatant as much as sure guided-missile destroyers, the report mentioned. It quoted a personal army investigation that additionally discovered the Luanda port in Angola can accommodate sure naval destroyers. 

The report quotes China’s 2019 protection white paper as saying that naval officers had been creating “abroad logistical amenities to deal with deficiencies in abroad operations,” calling for a shift from “close to coast lively protection to far seas maneuvering operations.

Nantulya mentioned he dentified greater than 10 events when Chinese language army ships have docked in seven completely different African ports in recent times, together with Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Lagos in Nigeria, Durban in South Africa) and Doraleh in Djibouti as staging grounds for workout routines.

Chinese language corporations reap the benefits of synergies between the import of China-made items and China-backed initiatives to develop railways, roads and ports underneath the multi-billion greenback Belt and Street Initiative. The Chinese language authorities is coordinating these operations as a result of it’s eager on securing main sea routes, mentioned Nantulya. Western corporations, together with these from the U.S., do not need this benefit.

“My evaluation is that China will certainly construct a brand new army base in Africa,” he mentioned. “However it’s troublesome to guess which port will probably be chosen for this objective.”