China is steadily expanding its military footprint in Africa, highlighted by the recent deployment of 700 combat-ready troops to join a multinational peacekeeping operation in South Sudan. In all, the People’s Liberation Army and Navy now have an estimated 2,700 soldiers, sailors, engineers, and medical staff stationed across the continent.
The number of troops deployed in Africa is extremely small, even insignificant, in the broader context of the massive Chinese military. However, a discernible trend is becoming increasingly apparent as Beijing expands the range of operations that its forces are engaged in Africa to include post-conflict stabilization (Mali), medical humanitarian missions (Liberia), on-going conflict stabilization (South Sudan) and anti-piracy operations (Somalia) among others. In all, Chinese military personnel are now involved in seven out of nine United Nations peacekeeping operations on the continent, the most of any permanent Security Council member.
Although it will be a long time, if ever, that China’s small military footprint will rival those of the United States and European countries in Africa, the steadily rising number of PLA/PLAN forces on the continent may indeed have profound consequences. Africa appears to be the theater of operations that is testing two bedrock principles of Chinese foreign policy: 1) The long-held non-interference doctrine and 2) no overseas military bases.
Former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shinn, who is also a prominent Sino-African scholar at the George Washington University’s Eliott School of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., is to publish a new research paper that explores what’s motivating the Chinese military push in Africa and how it’s being received by both Africans and the international community at large. Ambassador Shinn joins Eric & Cobus to discuss the new geopolitics of Chinese force projection in Africa.
Recommendations
- “China to send 700 combat troops to South Sudan ,” David Smith, The Guardian, December 23, 2014
- “Focus on DRC: Chinese UN Engineers Help Clear Way for Construction ,” Clementine Logan, CCTV Africa, July 19, 2014