[Salon] In Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, China is proving it is master of the sea

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

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In Africa’s Gulf of Guinea, China is proving it is master of the sea

China’s naval presence in an area notorious for piracy is both protecting its investments and stretching its military muscles

The South China Morning Post

Jevans Nyabiage

Published: 4:00pm, 29 Dec 2024

When Chinese destroyer Nanning, frigate Sanya and supply ship Weishanhu made a port call in Gabon in July last year, the Chinese navy was happy to help repair some equipment on the Gabonese frigate Mbini.

While they were there, the Chinese sailors also showed their counterparts how to use weapons and equipment, plus they carried out anti-terrorism, anti-piracy and rescue operations with them.

The Chinese naval stop in Gabon was just one of five visits to countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea on Africa’s Atlantic coastline during that trip to Africa. It is a gulf that stretches 5,700km (3,540 miles) from Senegal all the way down to Angola.

It is an important trade route and a region that is rich in oil – and it is a part of the world where China has been increasing its military engagement, paying port calls, holding joint drills, training and giving financial support to Gulf of Guinea countries.

China is emerging as an influential security player. It is growing its peacekeeping troop contributions, increasing the number of scholarships for study in Chinese military academies, and since 2017 joint naval exercises have become more frequent in West Africa.

According to experts, the increase in China’s military engagement with Gulf of Guinea countries is no coincidence. The Gulf of Guinea is a dangerous place, rife with pirate attacks and kidnappings, which gives Beijing the opportunity to both protect China’s African interests and citizens, and test the People’s Liberation Army’s abilities.

Paul Nantulya, a China specialist at the National Defence University’s Africa Centre for Strategic Studies in Washington, said the expansion of the Chinese navy’s continuously deployed naval escort task groups to the Gulf of Guinea would increase the deployment distance from China’s home waters, which would “allow China to continue testing and developing its expeditionary capabilities”.

“China views African waters as a testing ground to build these types of capabilities,” Nantulya said.

With the security threats facing China’s commercial shipping and fishing activities in the area, these military abilities are much needed.

West Africa takes the lion’s share in the distribution of Chinese port development projects in Africa, with 33 Chinese port projects in the region, compared with five in southern Africa, four in North Africa, and 17 in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, according to Nantulya.

The volume of maritime economic activity tends to attract pirates. Chinese fishing vessels and oil tankers have indeed been hijacked

Paul Nantulya, China specialist

But the maritime zone has long been a black spot for shipowners. Commercial vessels have been attacked, with crew members kidnapped and cargo stolen. Even ships waiting to unload cargo in harbours have been attacked.

“The volume of maritime economic activity tends to attract pirates,” Nantulya said. “Chinese fishing vessels and oil tankers have indeed been hijacked, with recent incidents occurring in April and July 2023.”

David Shinn, a professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said China wanted to put an end to those activities in the Gulf of Guinea and off the coast of Somalia, both for its own interests and because African governments welcomed the help.

It would also allow the Chinese navy to extend its influence in the region.

“This is probably the longer term goal of China’s engagement in Gulf of Guinea security affairs,” Shinn said.

In recent years, Nigeria and Sierra Leone have received navy patrol boats from China to help fight illegal fishing and piracy in their waters.

China-built hydropower station in Angola enters main construction phase

A month ago, Equatorial Guinean Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue met China Shipbuilding Trading Company executives to negotiate for national defence and security projects. He said that during a trip to China last year, the company “requested to work with Equatorial Guinea on our shipbuilding project to strengthen the national naval forces in the fight against maritime piracy in the Gulf of Guinea”.

Earlier this month, a two-day forum on the security situation was held with military officials from 18 countries in the Gulf of Guinea in Shanghai. Security cooperation issues and measures to “jointly deal with maritime threats and challenges such as piracy, smuggling and illegal fishing” were discussed.

Francois Vrey, a professor emeritus of military science and a research coordinator at the Security Institute for Governance and Leadership in Africa at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, said the Gulf of Guinea was a strategic and energy-rich landscape, where China had vast investments, especially in Angola, a major oil producer.

“It is thus in the Chinese interest to help with securing energy fields, as well as the shipping that must pass through the waters of the Gulf of Guinea as China has investments, citizens, as well as shipping it must protect,” Vrey said.

He said the Chinese interest was largely declared around maritime security matters and to secure the Gulf of Guinea.

“China wants to be seen as a maritime security provider given the explicit focus in its five-year plans to master ocean matters,” Vrey said.

Jevans Nyabiage

Kenyan journalist Jevans Nyabiage is the South China Morning Post's first Africa correspondent. Based in Nairobi, Jevans keeps an eye on China-Africa relations and also Chinese investments,