China's Djibouti Base Upgrades Set to Expand Regional Monitoring Reach
A US think tank says new antennas and satellite equipment at China's Djibouti base could sharpen its intelligence reach across the Middle East and Africa.
China has carried out upgrades at its military base in Djibouti that are expected to substantially expand its capacity to track military activity across the Middle East and Africa, according to an assessment by a Washington-based think tank.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies said commercial satellite imagery showed that new antennas, satellite communications equipment and other installations had been added at the facility — China's only formally acknowledged overseas military base.
Two new communications compounds have appeared at the site since mid-2024, the think tank said, describing them as likely components of a wider intelligence and military command structure. Such facilities would improve links between Chinese forces deployed in the Middle East and Africa and military headquarters in China.
The report noted that the equipment installed at the base is varied in type and orientation, allowing it to transmit and detect across a broad range of signals and frequencies. Together, the upgrades would give China a far more detailed picture of the operating environment in the region, it said.
Ongoing conflicts involving the Houthis, Iran, the United States and Israel have drawn significant military activity into the surrounding area, raising the potential value of intelligence gathered from the base, according to the assessment.
The facility, which opened in 2017, serves as a key hub for Chinese naval operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. It sits close to the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a vital choke point for global maritime trade.
The think tank said the base's capabilities have continued to develop over time, supporting increasingly sophisticated operations and helping China's navy build a growing foothold in the region.
The installations would probably allow the Chinese military to observe the activities of other militaries operating nearby, the report said, though it added that it was not possible to determine whether they were actively intercepting communications.
The United States, France, Italy and Japan all maintain bases less than 10 miles (16 km) from China's facility. According to the report, China could potentially extract useful information even from encrypted military communications, drawing insights into US and other militaries' operations by studying the direction, origin, frequency and pace of their signals.
The base could also support Chinese efforts to widen its footprint in Africa, where Beijing has steadily expanded both its economic and security engagement. China's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.