China’s naval base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, remains its only military bastion beyond its borders. Xi Jinping wants to change that
maintains hundreds of military bases in at least 45 countries. Britain runs plenty of outposts overseas. French forces are stationed from Ivory Coast to New Caledonia. Even tiny Singapore has training camps abroad. But five years after it opened—to the alarm of Western officials—China’s naval base in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa, remains its only military bastion beyond its borders.
China calls America “imperialist” for keeping foreign bases, while insisting that its own military expansion is peaceful, nothing to worry about and only natural for a rising power. It is surrounded by unfriendly island chains and narrow straits. Most of its trade in goods moves by sea. It is only prudent for China to seek friendly ports abroad, its officials say. It needs a navy equal to the task of defending its overseas investments, shipping routes and citizens who live or work abroad.
How to respond? For a start, democracies should learn from China, which has spent years diligently wooing Pacific Island governments. America’s engagement, by contrast, waned after the cold war’s end, giving it the reputation of a fickle and high-handed partner. It closed its embassy on the Solomons in 1993. Australia’s national broadcaster stopped short-wave radio transmissions to the Pacific five years ago, despite their value to locals as a source of information.
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