Washington, DC — China intends to establish a base at Bata, a port on the Atlantic coast of Equatorial Guinea, the Wall Street Journal reported in December, citing classified American intelligence reports and unnamed U.S. officials.
Such a facility in the small African nation of some two million people, would allow ships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) “to rearm and refit opposite the East Coast of the U.S.- a threat that is setting off alarm bells at the White House and Pentagon.” the officials told the Journal.
Although China does not possess such capabilities in the Atlantic region, the Biden Administration is worried “that the Chinese would develop a naval base in Equatorial Guinea, which would give them naval presence on the Atlantic,” Major General Andrew Rohling, Commander of the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force - Africa, told the Journal.
The growing Chinese presence in Africa, which has been a concern of U.S. strategists for many years, has gained greater attention recently as Washington has come to view competition with the People’s Republic as an overriding military and geopolitical priority.
In the past, U.S. assessments of Chinese military activities in Africa have largely focused on arms sales and training operations. The topic of bases was addressed openly for the first-time last April, when General Stephen J. Townsend, Commander of the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), testified before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees.
“The most significant threat, I think, from China would be to gain a militarily useful naval facility on the Atlantic coast of Africa,” he testified. “And by ‘militarily useful,’ I mean something more than a place that they can make port calls and get gas and groceries. I am talking about a port where they can rearm with munitions and repair naval vessels.” The Chinese “are working aggressively to get that,” he added, and “it is my number one global power competition concern.”
Townsend did not specifically name any countries on Africa’s Atlantic coast as possible Chinese targets for basing opportunities. But the Pentagon’s 2021 annual report to Congress on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China, released on November 3, 2021, asserted that China was considering Kenya, Seychelles, Tanzania, and Angola as potential sites for Chinese military bases and “has probably already made overtures to Namibia.”
The annual report made no mention of Chinese interest in establishing a naval base in Equatorial Guinea - raising questions about General Townsend’s single-minded focus on that particular country.
The United States has long been a major investor in Equatorial Guinea’s booming oil industry and a major provider of economic and military assistance to the government of Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the country’s dictator since 1979. The offshore Zafiro oil field, operated by ExxonMobil, remains the country’s largest source of oil output and accounts for a large share of its export revenues.
In recent years, however, China has made substantial investments in Equatorial Guinea, particularly in the civilian port at Bata which it has just constructed and in the country’s oil industry.
Washington Tightens the Screws
The Biden administration is officially ‘neutral’ as to whether African countries maintain economic and military ties with China, including whether they allow the People’s Republic to establish military bases on their sovereign territory.
During his November tour of three African countries, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in a speech delivered a in Abuja, said: “I know that many countries across the region are wary of the strings that come with more engagement, and fear that in a world of sharper rivalries among major powers, countries will be forced to choose.”
“I want to be clear,” he insisted, “the United States doesn’t want to limit your partnerships with other countries. We want to make your partnerships with us even stronger. We don’t want to make you choose. We want to give you choices.”
When it comes to Equatorial Guinea, however, this policy seems to differ. In October, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser John Finer visited Equatorial Guinea on what the Wall Street Journal described as “a mission to persuade President Teodoro Nguema Mbasaogo and his son and heir apparent, Vice President Teodoro ‘Teodorin’ Nguema Obiang Mangue, to reject China’s overtures.”
A senior administration official quoted by the Journal said that in discussions of maritime-security issues, “we have made it clear to Equatorial Guinea that certain potential steps involving [Chinese] activity there would raise national-security concerns.”
When asked about the Journal story, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters that the administration “has made clear” in discussions with the Equatorial Guinea leadership “that certain potential steps involving the PRC and the PRC’s activity there would raise national security concerns for us.”
As one senior congressional aide told Poltico in response to the Wall Street Journal article, “In some cases we’re going to have to make countries choose, or they’re not going to rebuff China on key national security issues such as this.”
At present, there is no evidence in non-classified sources of Chinese interest in acquiring a naval base in Equatorial Guinea or anywhere in West Africa. China does have a base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, just a few miles from the American base located there. But this is largely associated with the Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean, designed, like a similar U.S. naval presence, to combat piracy in the region.
Some Chinese military and civilian specialists have argued that China should seek to extend its naval power throughout the world in order to “pin down” U.S. naval forces that might otherwise be deployed off China’s coast. But there is no evidence that the PLAN intends, or has the resources, to pursue a strategy of this sort in the foreseeable future.
>>American troops are stationed at 29 different facilities in fifteen African countries<<
The Biden Administration’s expressions of concern about a possible Chinese naval base on Africa’s west coast and the threat this might pose to America’s Atlantic fleet would appear to signal a determination to block any Chinese moves to project military power abroad in a manner similar to that long practiced by the United States, which occupies nearly 600 bases in some 80 countries around the world.
In Africa, American troops are stationed at 29 different facilities in fifteen countries.
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“Having Chinese military vessels in the Atlantic represents a new phase of strategic competition,” Ioannis Koskinas, a senior fellow at the New America think-tank, told the Turkish magazine TRT World. “It may be that China simply says, ‘if the U.S. gets to send its carrier battle groups to the Western Pacific, China can send its ships to the Atlantic,’” he added.
The base controversy constitutes only the latest stage in escalating U.S.-China competition Like the Cold War in Africa between the former Soviet Union and the United States, the new Cold War in Africa will play out in ways that prove harmful to the interests of Africans. It appears that Washington is ready to use the many economic, political, and military tools at its disposal to pressure Equatorial Guinea and other African countries to choose sides and to penalize them if they choose the “wrong side.”
>>it is important to question alarmist claims about China and advocate for development assistance, not military aid to African states.<<
The United States could reduce or terminate economic assistance programs to targeted African governments, impose economic sanctions, provide support to insurgent groups seeking to overthrow them or take other actions that will be costly for the people of these countries. Already, propaganda from both sides is seeking to influence public understanding of the issues.
That is why it is so important to question alarmist claims about Chinese military activities in Africa and advocate for development assistance, not military aid to African states.
Daniel Volman is the Executive Director of the African Security Research Project in Washington, DC, and a specialist on U.S. military policy toward Africa and African security issues.
