China Port Construction in Africa Raises Concern About Military Use

China watchers are monitoring work by government-owned building companies to construct, put money into or function new or upgraded ports in Africa for potential future use in navy 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 business and navy makes use of. Chinese language firms have constructed and/or financed 78 ports in 32 African international locations.

“At the least seven Chinese language-backed ports in Africa have design options that make them able to berthing Chinese language naval services though they could not have been created particularly for this goal,” Paul Nantulya, analysis affiliate and China analyst on the Nationwide Protection College Africa Middle for Strategic Research in Washington, D.C., informed 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 host as much as two Chinese language corvettes, whereas Djibouti already hosts a Chinese language navy base, Nantulya mentioned.

He cited 4 options that make a port appropriate for navy use—important sea depth, safe location, absolutely built-in operations functionality and enough involvement of Chinese language firms in building, 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 building 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 business commerce, however can—with important dangers and issues—be flipped to navy 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 non-public navy 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 services to handle deficiencies in abroad operations,” calling for a shift from “close to coast energetic protection to far seas maneuvering operations.

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

Chinese language firms 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 Highway Initiative. The Chinese language authorities is coordinating these operations as a result of it’s eager on securing main sea routes, mentioned Nantulya. Western firms, together with these from the U.S., would not have this benefit.

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