CHINA-EQUATORIAL GUINEA: US CAUTIONS EQUATORIAL GUINEA ABOUT CHINESE DESIGNS ON ITS PORT OF BATA

An article in the Wall Street Journal (December 6) cited US Intelligence sources as saying the Chinese likely have an eye on Bata, a port in Equatorial Guinea. It claimed Bata already has a Chinese-built deep-water commercial port on the Gulf of Guinea, and excellent highways link the city to Gabon and the interior of Central Africa. It said U.S. intelligence agencies began picking up indications of China’s military intentions in Equatorial Guinea in 2019. During the closing days of the Trump administration, a senior Pentagon official visited the country, but the approach apparently left the Obiangs uncertain about how seriously the U.S. took China’s military aspirations. The Biden White House has sought to deliver a sharper message: It would be shortsighted of Equatorial Guinea to insert itself between the front lines of U.S.-China global competition. It quoted Maj. Gen. Andrew Rohling, Commander of the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force—Africa, as explaining in an interview in June that the U.S. concern “is that the Chinese would develop a naval base in Equatorial Guinea, which would then give them naval presence on the Atlantic.”





Subscribe to Newswire | Site Map | Email Us
Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, A-50, Second Floor, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110057
Tel: 011 41017353
Email: office@ccasindia.org