According to a new report by Chatham House, for over three decades, every Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas trip of the year has been to Africa, with the current minister Wang Yi having visited Egypt, Tunisia, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire this January. While every one of these countries is coastal, none of them has featured prominently as potential locations for China’s next military installation in Africa.
The conjecture regarding China’s ambitions emerges as African leaders boldly express their expectations and assert their demands from both bilateral allies and multilateral organizations.
China’s long-term strategy around bases in Africa is unclear, but countries hosting them must also make political calculations, Chatham’s expert analysis observes.
In 2017, China marked its military footprint in Africa after it opened a base in Djibouti, aiming to combat piracy operations and ensure freedom of navigation. According to the report, this base has over the years matured from a ‘resupply facility’ to a logistics facility, supported by up to two brigades of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
