China builds pier for aircraft carrier in Africa

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – China has built a pier large enough to hold an aircraft carrier close to its only naval base in Africa, USNI reported Tuesday. Recently completed, the pier is in the state of Djibouti, and is near the Bab el Mandeb entrance to the Red Sea from the Gulf of Aden.

The 1,120-foot pier can support China’s new aircraft carriers, assault carriers, or other large warships, USNI said in its report. Moreover, USNI said, the pier could also hold four Chinese nuclear-powered attack submarines.

US Africa Commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend told the House Armed Services Committee that Beijing is expanding its naval installation and looking to open other military bases in Africa, USNI said.

“[China’s] first overseas military base, their only one, is in Africa, and they have just expanded that by adding a significant pier that can even support their aircraft carriers in the future. Around the continent they are looking for other basing opportunities,” Townsend told the HASC.

China opened the Djibouti naval base in 2017, ostensibly to conduct anti-piracy missions in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia, USNI reports. However, the base now also acts as a logistical resupply center for China’s blue-water capital ships like its new large deck Type-075 amphibious warship or domestically-designed Type 002 aircraft carrier.

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