PLA Seeks Military Advantage With Port Investments

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has only one overseas naval base, strategically located in Djibouti. Heavy investments in ports across the globe, often near critical shipping chokepoints, suggest Beijing is eyeing the facilities for military as well as commercial objectives. Researchers say establishing additional overseas military bases is likely a priority for the PLA. AidData, a United States-based research lab, identified the ports below as locations where Beijing is most likely to pursue additional naval bases in coming years. Hover over the locations for more information.

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The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is building and acquiring interests in ports throughout the world with an eye toward using them for commercial and military purposes. The dual-use harbors increase the nation’s influence along vital sea routes and at maritime passages.

Observers fear the widespread investments are a dangerous power projection, with security risks ranging from espionage to economic coercion to military expansion. People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships have visited about one-third of the foreign ports, Newsweek magazine reported. The access makes it less expensive and more efficient to replenish the PLAN’s overseas fleets, according to The Wall Street Journal newspaper.

The PRC’s financing and construction of harbor and related infrastructure, either through foreign aid or investment, indicates ports or bases might serve the PLAN in times of peace or war, reported AidData, a United States-based research lab. “Beijing may also assume that the scale of China’s investment should imply a corresponding non-monetary debt: the larger the investment, the more leverage China should have to ask for favors, such as basing options and requirements,” researchers wrote in a 2023 AidData report, “Harboring Global Ambitions: China’s Ports Footprint and Implications for Future Overseas Naval Bases.”

The PRC’s state-dominated economy blurs the line between commercial and military endeavors. “Drawing a connection between an ostensibly commercial investment and future naval bases may seem odd to those unfamiliar with China’s way of doing business,” wrote former British Royal Navy officer Alexander Wooley and AidData researcher Sheng Zhang for Foreign Policy magazine. “But a Chinese port construction or operating company can be traded on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and also be an official government entity.”

They cited the majority state-owned and publicly traded China Communications Construction Company, a major player in overseas port building. The U.S. has sanctioned the company for its role in building internationally condemned artificial islands in the South China Sea to undermine the sovereignty rights of other nations.

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