First, Equatorial Guinea is located in Africa's Atlantic coast, a region where the US military has long had a firm hold and does not want to see an adversary like China to gain a strategic base there, compromising US domination.
With a population of 1.4 million, Equatorial Guinea is one of the smallest countries in Africa. The country possesses abundant offshore oil resources, making it the wealthiest across the sub-Saharan mainland in terms of per capita GDP.
Most of Equatorial Guinea’s oil reserves were discovered and have been extracted by American oil companies, making both the country’s ruling family, the Nguemas, and US firms rich while less than half of the country’s population does not have access to clean drinking water, according to the Human Development Index.
China, according to recent American intelligence reports, is looking to build its first permanent military base in the West African country on the Atlantic Ocean coast. If the Chinese plan goes ahead, it will be China’s first permanent military base on the Atlantic.
Despite the report placing China’s military ambitions in West Africa as a first, Ioannis Koskinas, a senior fellow at the international security program of New America, a US think-tank, sees a longer history.
“It should be clear that China didn’t just wake up in 2021 and start investing in West Africa. Just in Equatorial Guinea alone, China started investing in the Bata Port Rehabilitation and Expansion Project, in 2006,” says Koskinas.
According to US intelligence, Beijing will likely build the base in Bata, the largest city. China has already built a deep-water commercial port in Bata as Koskinas pointed out.
Fight for the Atlantic?
First, Equatorial Guinea is located in Africa's Atlantic coast, a region where the US military has long had a firm hold and does not want to see an adversary like China to gain a strategic base there, compromising US domination.
Reason for the Chinese base
The base will allow the Asian giant to have “naval presence on the Atlantic,” according to Maj. Gen. Andrew Rohling, commander of the US Army Southern European Task Force—Africa.
“My sense is that there’s more to it than just the military base. This is likely a concern of what China does with a military footprint in West Africa,” Koskinas tells TRT World.
“Having Chinese military vessels in the Atlantic represents a new phase of strategic competition. It may be that China simply says, ‘if the US gets to send its carrier battle groups to the Western Pacific, China can send its ships to the Atlantic’,” he adds.
China’s first overseas military base was also in Africa’s Djibouti, located on the eastern part of the continent, straddling both the Indian Ocean and the strategic Suez Channel. Djibouti is a country with some similarities to Equatorial Guinea in terms of its small population and location.
As a result, China’s two choices for military bases in Africa appear to signal that the Asian giant wants military access to both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, aiming to increase political competition with the US. Beijing and Washington have already experienced increasing tensions across the Pacific on which both countries have extensive coasts.
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