China Upgrades Djibouti Military Base, Raising Surveillance Concerns Across Red Sea Region

DJIBOUTI – China has upgraded communications infrastructure at its military base in Djibouti, potentially giving the People’s Liberation Army greater ability to maintain contact with forces operating across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and to gather information on military activity in the region.

The findings are contained in a new analysis by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which used commercial satellite imagery to examine developments at China’s Djibouti base.

CSIS identified two new communications facilities that have emerged since mid-2024, featuring high-frequency antennas, very and ultra-high-frequency equipment, satellite communications dishes and probable 5G towers.

The researchers say the facilities appear to form part of a broader command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system that could strengthen China’s ability to operate far from home.

The report says the equipment would allow Chinese forces to maintain more reliable communications with ships and aircraft operating in the region and with military headquarters in China. It also says the systems could support signals intelligence collection, although satellite imagery alone cannot establish whether passive interception is actually taking place.

That possibility is significant because Djibouti sits beside the Bab al-Mandab Strait, one of the world’s key maritime chokepoints connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

The area has become increasingly important to global security as attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, conflict in Yemen and wider tensions in the Middle East have drawn greater military activity from international powers.

China’s base is also located close to military facilities operated by the United States, France, Italy and Japan, giving the site a particularly important position for monitoring activity around the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.

For Beijing, the location provides a forward position for supporting naval operations in the Gulf of Aden, where Chinese naval escort groups have operated for years.

China opened the Djibouti base in 2017, making it the People’s Liberation Army’s first formally acknowledged overseas military base. The facility has supported Chinese naval operations and provided logistical support for ships operating in waters off East Africa and the Middle East.

The latest construction suggests that the role of the base is evolving beyond logistics.

CSIS says the new communications infrastructure could give China a more persistent picture of military and security activity across parts of Africa and the Middle East, while improving the ability of Chinese forces to coordinate operations at considerable distance from the mainland.

The development is particularly relevant to the Horn of Africa, where Djibouti has become a major concentration point for foreign military forces because of its position near Bab al-Mandab and the Gulf of Aden.

The region also sits close to conflicts and security crises in Yemen, Somalia and Sudan, while carrying major commercial traffic between Asia, Europe and Africa.

CSIS said the upgrades form part of China’s broader effort to develop a network of overseas capabilities that can support its military’s ability to operate farther from Chinese territory.

The findings come as China’s overseas military footprint and its ability to operate in strategically important regions receive increasing international attention.

The developments add another dimension to Djibouti’s growing importance as a centre of military, maritime and geopolitical activity at the entrance to the Red Sea.

By agencies.