{"id":31202,"date":"2021-05-07T11:24:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T18:24:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/?p=31202"},"modified":"2021-05-07T11:24:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T18:24:05","slug":"new-submarine-threat-top-u-s-general-says-china-pursuing-atlantic-naval-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/new-submarine-threat-top-u-s-general-says-china-pursuing-atlantic-naval-base\/","title":{"rendered":"New submarine threat: Top U.S. general says China pursuing Atlantic naval base"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China<\/a> is moving behind-the-scenes toward establishing a major naval port on the west coast of Africa that would host Chinese submarines and aircraft carriers capable of projecting Beijing<\/a>\u2018s military power directly into the Atlantic, a top U.S. military official warned on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top commander for U.S. military operations in Africa said Chinese officials have been approaching countries stretching from Mauritania to south of Namibia in search of where to position the naval facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re looking for a place where they can rearm and repair warships. That becomes militarily useful in conflict,\u201d U.S. Gen.\u00a0Stephen Townsend<\/a>\u00a0said in an interview with The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gen. Townsend<\/a>, who heads the Pentagon\u2019s Africa Command, added that China<\/a>\u2018s military is already close to establishing such a facility in Djibouti, which is situated more than 2,000 miles away in the Horn of Africa on the Indian Ocean side of the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow they\u2019re casting their gaze to the Atlantic coast and wanting to get such a base there,\u201d the general said in the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments caused a stir among China<\/a> watchers in Washington, some of whom said the American public should awaken to a reality the Pentagon has been quietly warning about for the past several years: Authoritarian communist government-run China<\/a> is emerging as a global military power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time before you have regular surface and subsurface Chinese naval vessels in the Atlantic,\u201d Bradley Bowman<\/a>, who heads the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Washington Times on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans need to know that\u2019s coming and the question is what do we do between now and then to get ready,\u201d Mr. Bowman<\/a> said, adding that Gen. Townsend<\/a>\u2018s warning should give U.S. policymakers pause as they debate defense spending priorities in the Biden era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday\u2019s warning came roughly two weeks after the general sought to draw the attention of U.S. lawmakers to Beijing<\/a>\u2018s expanding activities in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China<\/a>\u2018s \u201cactivities in Africa are outpacing those of the United States and our allies as they seek resources and markets to feed economic growth in China<\/a> and leverage economic tools to increase their global reach and influence,\u201d Gen. Townsend<\/a> testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee April 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In prepared remarks, he noted that Beijing<\/a> has pledged to deliver some $60 billion in infrastructure and development loans to an array of African countries in recent years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China is moving behind-the-scenes toward establishing a major naval port on the west coast of Africa that would host Chinese submarines and aircraft carriers capable of projecting Beijing\u2018s military power directly into the Atlantic, a top U.S. military official warned on Thursday. The top commander for U.S. military operations in Africa said Chinese officials have been approaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":31203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[269],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/SUB.png?fit=700%2C439&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31204,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31202\/revisions\/31204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}