Johannesburg — While the U.S. was forced to downsize and pull its troops out of Niger this year, China is increasing its military cooperation on the continent, recently announcing a plan to spend $140 million to train 6,000 military personnel — a move, a U.S. defense official said Friday, was for China’s “own economic growth and benefit.”
Among the many ways that the U.S. and China are competing for influence in Africa, analysts say military cooperation on the continent is one that is seeing rising rivalry between the two superpowers.
At a summit that focused on China-Africa cooperation last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping made the pledge to train the 6,000 military personnel. He also invited 500 African officers to visit China.
‘Most explicit’ pledge
China has been cooperating with Africa in several areas of security for years, including participating in U.N. peacekeeping missions, holding joint military drills, and providing training and education for officers. However, analysts said the latest announcement was particularly noteworthy.
“This year’s military pledge was by far the most explicit,” Lauren Johnston, associate professor of China studies at the University of Sydney, told VOA. “Never seen anything so measured and direct.”
Asked by VOA about whether Xi’s pledge means China is outperforming the U.S. when it comes to security cooperation on the continent, a spokesperson for U.S.-Africa Command, or AFRICOM, said: “We recognize that the PRC is adept at creating opportunities to expand influence on the continent.”
The PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.
“Its long-term vision for Africa is tied to its own economic benefit and growth,” said the spokesperson, Kelly Cahalan. “The PRC is the second-largest arms supplier in Africa after Russia, with defense exports of small arms, missile systems, aerial munitions, naval vessels, combat aircraft, infantry vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles.”
However, the AFRICOM spokesperson added that the U.S. “would welcome the PRC’s cooperation on issues such as climate change, global health security, arms control and non-proliferation.”
Niger exodus
In a blow to Washington earlier this year, the U.S. military was forced to pull troops out of Niger, after the junta there demanded the U.S. close its $100 million airbase combatting extremist groups in the Sahel region.
Since then, the U.S. has been in talks with other West African nations, including Ivory Coast, Ghana and Benin “as we start to reset and recalibrate some of our assets,” General Michael Langley commander of U.S.-Africa Command, or AFRICOM, told journalists in an online press briefing Thursday.
Langley was speaking from Kenya, after also visiting Somalia to speak with the government about counter-terrorism efforts against al-Shabab. He has spent a lot of time on the continent recently, having also visited a number of North African countries earlier this year.
Asked in the press briefing about China’s influence in Africa, General Langley said the choice lay with African governments.
“When we have engaged with our African partners, we don’t give them an ultimatum of who to choose for a security partner,” he said. “All our activities and our partnership-centric type approach should be African-led and U.S.-enabled.”
Darren Olivier, director of the conflict research consulting firm African Defense Review, said the U.S. is trying to shore up support after the blow it received in West Africa.
“The U.S. was clearly shaken by the junta takeovers in Sahelian countries like Burkina Faso & Niger and their subsequent ending of security cooperation and basing agreements,” he said in a written response to VOA, noting that the U.S. had been criticized for not being consultative enough with its African partners.
“General Langley’s tour therefore appears to be not just about shoring up support for new cooperation agreements and basing locations, but to reinforce the U.S.’s new message of listening first and advising second,” Olivier added.
Playing the long game
Efforts by the U.S. in Africa come as China is working to grow its ties as well.
Jana de Kluiver, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies based in South Africa, said China was looking to foster long-term connections with the people who will go on to become Africa’s military top brass and political elite.
“The 6,000 military personnel trained by China will later on become higher ranking figures in their respective countries, enhancing Beijing’s soft power across the continent,” she told VOA.
In 2022, China launched what it called the Global Security Initiative, or GSI, as a counterpoint to the U.S.-led security order. One of the main tenets of the initiative is China’s principle of non-interference.
“As Chinese economic interests expand across the continent, the need for a stable security environment becomes critical. However, Beijing is careful to avoid appearing too assertive, as its broader narrative seeks to contrast with the perceived interventionism of the West,” said the Institute for Security Studies’ de Kluiver.
African Defense Review’s Olivier said it will be interesting to see how African nations that are used to Western military support and training now juggle their options.
If they opt for Chinese training, they could then choose to “silo their armed forces into units trained by Western countries and units trained by China, which will have its own impacts from incompatible doctrines and standards,” he told VOA.
China always positions itself as a no-strings attached ally of Africa and Olivier said it would also depend where China placed any pre-conditions on military cooperation.
“Western countries are traditionally skittish about training units that might commit human rights violations,” he said. “This might provide the opportunity for some countries frustrated with those restrictions to turn to Beijing for training instead.”
Base concerns
Washington has also long been concerned about the possibility that China is looking to establish a second permanent base in Africa. Beijing already has one on the continent’s east coast, in Djibouti, and is said to be seeking a foothold in West Africa.
That would give Beijing a military presence across the Atlantic from America’s East Coast, a move that analysts say would be perceived by the U.S. as a threat to national security.
China was believed to be looking to Equatorial Guinea, but those talks have reportedly stalled.
Last week Bloomberg reported the U.S. is assembling a $5 million security package, including special forces training, for Gabon. The report quoted unnamed sources, but said the deal was aimed at preventing China from establishing a base in the country.