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US military officials' hype over China's influence in Africa is 'repeated groundless rhetoric aimed at advancing US geopolitical and commercial interests'

Global Times

By Chen Qingqing Published: Jul 23, 2025 12:56 PM

Some members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee have once again hyped up China's influence in Africa, according to US media reports. In the view of several Chinese military and geopolitical experts, such repeated and outdated rhetoric is groundless, as China has never sought to establish a military presence in Africa.

The real reason behind the US military's narrative of "China expanding its military presence in Africa" is to fabricate the so-called "China military threat theory" as a pretext for its own military involvement in the continent, experts said.

Committee chairman Roger Wicker said during a Tuesday hearing that Africa was increasingly at the center of a great-power rivalry and is seeing more activity from China, "which is expanding its military footprint on the continent," and seeks to destabilize the continent through so-called disinformation campaigns, according to US military news site Stars and Stripes.

China has never sought to establish a military presence in Africa. Our activities on the continent have always been carried out at the invitation of local countries, aimed at assisting them in counterterrorism efforts and strengthening their national defense capabilities, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"For example, the support base China established in Djibouti is primarily intended to safeguard the security of sea lanes in the Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters, and to support regional peace and stability," Song said, noting that the base also plays a role in ensuring the effective participation by Chinese personnel in UN peacekeeping missions in Africa.

All of China's military-related activities in Africa are undertaken to fulfill international responsibilities and help maintain regional security. China has never sought to establish military bases or expand military influence—our approach is fundamentally different from that of countries like the US, which maintains overseas bases dominated by military objectives, Song noted.

Senior member of the committee, Jack Reed, said in his statement that America's adversaries are forging trade relationships in Africa while simultaneously eroding US influence on the continent, according to the Voice of America.

In recent years, China has proposed the Global Security Initiative and strengthened its cooperation with Africa in investment, financing, and infrastructure development, gradually extending that collaboration into the security domain, Song Wei, a professor at the School of International Relations and Diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"For China, participating in African security affairs is not only an important expression of its responsibilities as a major power, but also a means to help address regional instability and the threat of terrorism. It is worth emphasizing that China has always advanced its peacekeeping efforts under the framework of the UN and has never engaged in so-called 'military infiltration' like the US," Song Wei said.

China will firmly support Africans in seeking African solutions to African problems. The African people are the true masters of the African continent, and have the wisdom, ability and right to solve their own problems, the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a joint press conference with his Nigerian counterpart Yusuf Tuggar in January.

China will firmly support Africa in strengthening its peace and security capacity, establish and implement a Global Security Initiative partnership with African countries create demonstration zones for the initiative, and advance security-building partnership actions, said Wang.

The US military's hype over the so-called "growing Chinese military presence in Africa" is, in fact, an attempt to manufacture the "China military threat" narrative, providing a pretext for its own military involvement in Africa, Song noted.

"It also seeks to push African nations to rely on the US and purchase American-made weapons to serve its own geopolitical and commercial interests. The essence of such manipulation is to advance US geopolitical strategy—not to genuinely support Africa's peace and development," the Chinese expert said.