The port of Luanda, Angola, as seen in 2015. China's increasing development of seaports in Africa is creating concerns about the potential for transforming them into a foothold for the Chinese military, according to a report March 10, 2025, by a Defense Department-affiliated think tank. (Joshua Davies/U.S. Navy)
STUTTGART, Germany — China’s growing network of ports in Africa could serve as a precursor to the creation of more military bases, according to a new report by a Pentagon-affiliated think tank.
Chinese firms, many of which are state-owned, are now either active stakeholders or present at 231 ports there, making the continent Beijing’s largest maritime hub in the world, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies said in a report Monday.
Years of Chinese economic investment in Africa could be paving the way for a more robust military presence by Beijing, the report said.
A “concern of China’s expansive port development in Africa is the possibility of repurposing commercial ports for military activities,” wrote Paul Nantulya, a researcher at the center.
U.S. military officials in recent years have warned about China’s potential military expansion in Africa.
In 2021, former U.S. Africa Command leader Gen. Stephen Townsend said China had its eye on a number of locations in western Africa that could serve as an Atlantic port for its warships.
“They are working aggressively to get that, but we have not seen any of that come to fruition yet,” Townsend said at the time. “And it is my No. 1 global power competition concern.”
In 2017, Beijing opened its first overseas military base just miles away from AFRICOM’s hub at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.
In the run-up to the opening of that base, China marketed its involvement at the Port of Doraleh as commercial in nature. But two months after the port went into operation, the site became the first Chinese military base overseas, the think tank’s report said.
“There is widespread speculation that China could replicate this model for future basing arrangements elsewhere on the continent,” the report said.
Among the ports where China is active, several stand out as locations for military use, given their respective design specifications, the report said, listing facilities in Angola, Nigeria, Kenya and Namibia as possible candidates.
Another country that has been mentioned as a potential site for a new Chinese naval base is Equatorial Guinea. However, the center’s report downplayed the idea, saying a variety of technical factors make that country less suitable.
Numerous ports stretching from Tanzania on the Indian Ocean to Nigeria on the Atlantic Ocean have already served as staging grounds for Chinese military exercises and navy port calls, the report said.
“The growing militarization of China’s Africa policy is stoking concerns about the implications of more foreign bases in Africa,” the report said.
