Beijing seeks to add Atlantic base to its ‘string of pearls’ network: ‘They are making big bets on Africa’

China is ‘making big bets on Africa’, says a US general who sees Beijing in pursuit of new Atlantic port base for its navy.

Chinese and Association of Southeast Asian Nations navy representatives at the opening ceremony for a joint maritime exercise at a military port in Zhanjiang, in China's southern Guangdong province. Picture: AFP

China is seeking to become an Atlantic naval power and wants a base on the west African coastline to host submarines and aircraft carriers, the US has warned.

The project by the People’s Liberation Army Navy is linked to China’s Belt and Road initiative to stretch Beijing’s economic and trade influence.

General Stephen Townsend, the head of US Africa Command, said Beijing has strategically developed a network of ports and fortified islets in recent years – sometimes referred to as its String of Pearls – but has not had an Atlantic base before.

Although the Pentagon’s strategy has been focused on the threat posed by China’s naval and missile build up in the Indo-Pacific, General Townsend said he was concerned about the shorter distance from Africa’s west coast to the US, substantially closer in nautical miles than the PLA’s naval facilities in China are to the American west coast.

The Pentagon and US state department fear that the PLA is piggy-backing on to the Belt and Road program to build a network of naval facilities to enable its submarines, carriers and escort ships to put pressure on US and Nato navies beyond the Pacific region.

China had approached countries stretching from Mauritania in the northwest to south of Namibia whose western border is on the Atlantic Ocean, General Townsend said. US officials said China had looked at ports in the Gulf of Guinea area.

These are believed to include Kribi in Cameroon, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Tema in Ghana, and Puerto Macias in Equatorial Guinea. “They’re looking for a place where they can re-arm and repair warships,” Townsend said.

China opened its first military base overseas in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa in 2017. It has built a 340-metre pier there, large enough to accommodate an aircraft carrier. China has two carriers with a third being built. “Now they’re casting their gaze to the Atlantic coast,” he said.

In a report last year the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington identified 46 African ports where China had financial, construction and operational involvement. “The Chinese are outmanoeuvring the US in select countries in Africa,” General Townsend said. “They are making big bets on Africa.”

A former senior Pentagon official said: “Don’t look at what [a West Africa] base means in 2021 or 2027. Think of what it means in 2049 [when President Xi Jinping expects China’s modernisation program to be completed].”

The Times