Place your bets — Where will China’s next overseas military base be?

By Bill Lee

For those who like board games like Civilization, a “gamer” would surely love a game built around the development of China’s overseas bases and ports, and a board game creator would probably make a handsome profit for designing such a game. There is one problem, however: China’s rapid and multi-directional moves would soon render the game arrangement obsolete.

Now that China has a functioning military base in Djibouti with an exclusive-use port facility also attached, the game is on among pundits about where China will open its next military base. The base in Djibouti makes perfect sense since much of China’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz and China sends large contingents of UN PKO units to Africa.

China has leased ports or bought the operating rights for several ports around the world. Stretching westward, China is building an artificial island that will have port facilities in the Strait of Malacca, as well as expanding the port of Kuantan on Malaysia’s east coast. Farther south, China’s Landbridge Group acquired a 99-year lease for Darwin port at the northern tip of Australia.

China has also bought the operating rights for Colombo Port City and Hanbantotan port in the southern part of Sri Lanka. China has acquired the operating rights for Gwadar port in Pakistan. And at the doorstep to Europe, the Chinese shipping and port giant Cosco has purchased the operating rights for the port of Piraeus in Greece. Chinese companies also have leases for ports in Panama and Brazil.

So excepting the South China Sea, where might China establish another military, not commercial, base, or a combination of the two? Because it has a strong relationship with Pakistan and sells it billions of dollars worth of military hardware, the Gwadar port area seems a leading candidate, particularly considering Gwadar’s strategic location as a mid-way point to the Middle East and beyond and as the hub of China’s “Silk Road.”

China’s military and economic planners must now be moving pieces around their global game boards looking for the best location for their next overseas military facility. Where will it be?

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Photo by adr1682305408 Thanh via Flickr.