(cont)
, though discreet, is presided over by AdmiralSHEN Jin Long (沈金龙), Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Navy, at the Zhanjiang Naval Base. It is unclear at this time how many Chinese soldiers have been sent, but knowing that a Type 071 LPD can only carry 800 men in addition to its crew, and that the Chinese base in Djibouti measures only 0.36 km², It seems unlikely that the Chinese army will deploy more than one regiment on the spot.
According to Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the foreign minister of Djibouti, the number of Chinese military present in this future base is not limited, but in principle "it should not exceed 2,000 men".
Chinese warships are allowed to lay anchor there, but there will be no airstrip, only heliports, says Ali Youssouf, which limits the projection capacity of Chinese forces towards the interior of the continent.
In comparison, the Lemonnier camp, the only permanent US military base in Africa, covers an area of 2 km² for a rent of 70 million USD per year. 4,000 US military personnel are on site throughout the year.
In yellow, the Chinese support base in Djibouti, located to the west of Doraleh's new container port.
In comparison, the Lemonier Camp of the US Army in Djibouti.
To have their first "pied-à-terre" overseas, the Chinese government must pay the damned sum of 20 million US dollars a year. The contract, signed between Djibouti and China in 2015, is valid for 10 years but renewable.
In just ten years, China has become the main trading partner of the African continent with more than 160 billion USD of goods traded in 2015. This is twice as much as the United States and almost three times that of France.
The fact that more than one million Chinese live and work in Africa today further strengthens the need for close military support, not to mention the arrival of the global economic-geopolitical strategy "One Belt One Road "Which aims to create two transcontinental economic zones between Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa.
These areas should make it easier for China to supply natural resources for its growth and export its excess production capacity. A scheme that is already known in Europe after the first Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century , but the methods are a different hair.
To support this ambitious strategy established by Chinese President XI Jin Ping, very important means have been put in place. For example, the navigation and positioning system
Beidou , the Chinese equivalent of the
GPS system , is requested to be able to cover as soon as possible all the countries of this "belt" in Asia.
A belt in which China intends to establish its own rules of the game, and integrate as many people as possible into its sphere of influence through trade, but not only.
Djbouti, along with the South China Sea, the Straits of Malacca and Sri Lanka, is part of the strategic maritime crossings of this new Silk Sea Road.
The choice to build a "supply" base, initially at this location overlooking the mouth of the Gulf of Aden seems logical to respond to a global economic and geopolitical strategy.
So a first step, but most likely not the last ...
To be continued.
Henri K.