The 'Stars and Stripes' (April 22) quoted US AFRICOM’s Gen. Stephen Townsend as saying on April 21 that China’s naval base in the East African nation of Djibouti is now large enough to host aircraft carriers. He said “Their first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can support even their aircraft carriers in the future. Around the continent they are looking for other basing opportunities.”

(Comment: China opened its Djibouti base in 2017, just seven miles from Camp Lemmonier, the U.S. military’s operational hub in the Horn of Africa. China has two aircraft carriers in service — the Liaoning, a heavily modified, unfinished ex-Russian carrier, and the Shandong, a modernized version of the Liaoning. A third carrier could be ready by 2024 and is expected to be the first equipped with catapults that would allow it to launch heavier planes.)