FPI / February 14, 2024
Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) ambition to impose global political hegemony has two major military requirements: A power projection navy able to deploy force around the world and a global network of bases and naval access agreements to support global maritime power projection.
Later this year the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) will begin initial sea trials for its new conventionally powered 80,000-ton Type 003 aircraft carrier Fujian, that will carry an air wing of about 70 combat and support aircraft.
Construction could begin soon on a second Type 003 or a larger nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
Therefore the PLAN could have a force of six to seven aircraft carriers by the mid-2030s.
Regarding bases to support global projection for new PLAN carrier battle groups, China is pursuing basing options in the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Africa and in the South Pacific.
United States officials have sounded public alarms that China is seeking naval bases in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Africa, according to Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal in his Feb. 10 articles, “U.S.-China Tensions Have a New Front: A Naval Base in Africa.”
“China is conducting a backroom campaign to secure a naval base on the [African] continent’s western shores, American officials say. And, for more than two years, the U.S. has been running a parallel effort to persuade African leaders to deny the People’s Liberation Army Navy a port in Atlantic waters,” says this report.
In August 2023, Gabon’s then President Ali Bongo told a visiting U.S. official that he had made a “promise” to CCP leader Xi Jinping that China could build a naval base in Gabon.
Chinese construction of such a base has at least been postponed by the September 2023 coup in Gabon that deposed Bongo, but U.S. laws restricting military relations with coup-based governments has also impeded U.S. efforts to convince Gabon’s new government to refuse China’s approaches.
Washington has also tried to convince the smaller state of Equatorial Guinea just to the north of Gabon, a repressive dictatorship ruled since 1999 by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, not to allow China to build a naval base.
But Washington is behind the power curve in that China has built about 100 ports in Africa and is the largest trading partner for Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
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