Strategic U.S. naval base in Africa gets new neighbor: China

First overseas post marks a milestone in Beijing’s growing global ambitions

DJIBOUTI — With no shared border, China and the United States mostly circle each other from afar, relying on satellites and cybersnooping to peek inside the workings of each other’s war machines.

But the two strategic ri- vals are about to become neighbors in the East African desert. China is constructing its first overseas military base in Djibouti — a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, one of the Pentagon’s largest and most important foreign installations.

With increasing tensions over China’s islandbuilding efforts in the South China Sea, U.S. strategists worry that a naval port so close to Camp Lemonnier could provide a front-row seat to the stag- ing ground for U.S. counterterrorism operations in the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.

Established after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Camp Lemonnier is home to 4,000 personnel.

Some are involved in secretive missions, including targeted drone killings in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and the raid last month in Yemen that killed a member of the Navy SEALs.

The base, which is run by the Navy and abuts Dji- bouti’s international airport, is the only permanent U.S. installation in Africa.

Beyond surveillance concerns, U.S. officials, citing the billions of dollars in Chinese loans to Djibouti’s heavily indebted government, wonder about the long-term durability of an alliance that has served Washington well in its global fight against Islamic extremism.

Just as important, experts say, the base’s construction is a milestone marking Beijing’s expand- ing global ambitions.

“It’s naval power expansion for protecting commerce and China’s regional interests in the Horn of Africa,” said Peter Dutton, professor of strategic studies at the Naval War College in Rhode Island.

Chinese officials play downthe significance of the base, saying it will largely support anti-piracy operations that have helped quell the threat to international shipping once posed by marauding Somalis.

“The support facility will be mainly used to provide rest and rehabilitation for the Chinese troops taking part in escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian rescue,” the Defense Ministry in Beijing said.

Dutton said Beijing would most likely try to “acclimatize” the world by using the facility for commercial purposes when it begins operating this year and then gradually increase the number of warships that dock there.