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Extended Range: China Upgrades Its Military Base in Djibouti

China’s military has added two new communications facilities at its overseas base in Djibouti, strengthening its ability to operate far from home and likely collect intelligence across the Middle East and Africa.

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By: Matthew Funaiole, Brian Hart, Aidan Powers-Riggs, Douglas Comstock Published: September 17, 2026

China’s military has upgraded its base in Djibouti, enhancing its operational and intelligence-gathering capabilities in the Middle East and Africa. Commercial satellite imagery shows that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has installed new equipment that will strengthen its internal communications capabilities while also enabling signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection.

The PLA Support Base in Djibouti (中国人民解放军驻吉布提保障基地) is China’s only formally acknowledged overseas military base. It plays a crucial role in the larger ambitions of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to conduct “far seas” operations well beyond China’s shores.

Djibouti is strategically positioned along the Gulf of Aden and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, a 20-mile-wide vital chokepoint that carries an estimated 16 percent of global maritime trade. The country’s location has made it a hotspot for foreign military bases. The United States, France, Italy, and Japan each operate bases less than 10 miles from China’s.

Since opening in 2017, the Djibouti base has supported PLAN Naval Escort Task Force operations in the Gulf of Aden, which have helped protect China’s overseas commercial interests from asymmetric threats while offering naval forces valuable operational experience.

The base’s capabilities have continued to evolve over time to enable increasingly sophisticated operations, helping the PLAN establish a growing foothold in the region.

Since mid-2024, two new communications facilities have emerged in the base’s southeastern and northwestern corners.

The larger southeastern facility features a main control building, three 30-meter dipole antennas for high-frequency (HF) communications, two smaller antennas for very/ultra-high frequency (V/UHF) communications, three mobile dish antennas for satellite communications (SATCOM), four probable 5G towers , and a radome enclosing an unidentified asset.

Across the base, two crossed dipole HF antennas and a radome (similar to those in the southeastern facility) are present alongside a main control building. Additional reinforced cable trenches laid in 2025 suggest more antennas may be added in the future.

These two facilities very likely work as two halves of one base-wide command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture, providing the PLA with a much more robust picture of the operating environment in the region.

View summary PDF with detailed satellite imagery here .

The type and orientation of the base’s new equipment is varied, enabling transmission and detection across a wide range of signals and frequencies.

In practice, this new equipment allows the PLA to maintain redundant, over-the-horizon communications with Chinese ships and aircraft operating in the region and provides secure communications channels with command headquarters in China.

The facilities also likely enable the PLA to monitor the activities of other militaries operating nearby. Open-source methods cannot confirm whether passive SIGINT collection is underway, but these new assets would almost certainly support a SIGINT mission set. Although military communications are encrypted, the PLA could draw valuable insights into U.S. and other militaries’ operations by observing the direction, origin, frequency, and pace of their signals.

The PLA held the opening ceremony for its first overseas military support base in Djibouti on August 1, 2017, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA. The PLA held the opening ceremony for its first overseas military support base in Djibouti on August 1, 2017, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA.

The PLA held the opening ceremony for its first overseas military support base in Djibouti on August 1, 2017, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA.

Recent conflicts across the Middle East have sharply increased the intelligence value of Chinese SIGINT capabilities in Djibouti. Since late 2023, Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping and the escalation of U.S. and Israeli operations against Iran have drawn substantial U.S. forces into the region. By July 2026, more than 20 U.S. Navy warships, including two carrier strike groups and hundreds of aircraft, were supporting operations against Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.

The new facilities could also help China glean valuable insights into activities in Africa, where Beijing has deep economic interests and growing security ties. In recent years, China has built ground-based space infrastructure in the region to close coverage gaps in its global space-tracking and data-relay networks. Improvements at the base in Djibouti add more nodes in China’s expanding global network of facilities that can feed information back into the nation’s intelligence community.

Taken together, these upgrades at the Djibouti base give China a persistent forward C4ISR node covering much of the Middle East and Africa. That could prove valuable for China as it seeks a deeper understanding of the regional operational environment in order to project power farther from home.

This report was produced by the Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab .

Written by Matthew P. Funaiole , Brian Hart , Aidan Powers-Riggs , and Douglas Comstock

Satellite Imagery Analysis support by: Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.

Production by: Michael Kohler

Design support by: William Taylor

Editorial support by: Kelsey Hartman and Phillip Meylan

Established in Washington, D.C. over 60 years ago, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas that address the world’s greatest challenges.

Hidden Reach is a CSIS special initiative that shines light on under-appreciated sources of China's far-reaching influence abroad.

作者：Matthew Funaiole、Brian Hart、Aidan Powers-Riggs、Douglas Comstock 发布日期：2026年9月17日

中国军方升级了其位于吉布提的军事基地，增强了其在中东和非洲的作战和情报搜集能力。商业卫星图像显示，中国人民解放军已安装了新设备，这将加强其内部通信能力，同时也将提升其信号情报（SIGINT）搜集能力。

中国人民解放军驻吉布提保障基地是中国唯一正式承认的海外军事基地。它对于中国人民解放军海军（PLAN）在中国海岸之外进行“远海”行动的更大雄心发挥着至关重要的作用。

吉布提地处亚丁湾和曼德海峡沿岸的战略要地，曼德海峡宽约20英里，是重要的海上贸易咽喉要道，承载着全球约16%的海上贸易量。吉布提的地理位置使其成为外国军事基地的聚集地。美国、法国、意大利和日本在吉布提都设有军事基地，距离中国的军事基地均不到10英里。

自 2017 年启用以来，吉布提基地一直支持中国人民解放军海军护航特遣部队在亚丁湾的行动，这有助于保护中国海外商业利益免受不对称威胁，同时为海军部队提供宝贵的作战经验。

随着时间的推移，该基地的能力不断发展，以支持日益复杂的行动，帮助中国人民解放军海军在该地区建立起越来越大的立足点。

自 2024 年年中以来，该基地的东南角和西北角分别出现了两个新的通信设施。

较大的东南设施包括一个主控制楼、三个用于高频 (HF) 通信的 30 米偶极子天线、两个用于甚/超高频 (V/UHF) 通信的较小天线、三个用于卫星通信 (SATCOM) 的移动碟形天线、四个可能是 5G 塔的天线，以及一个包裹着不明资产的雷达罩。

基地内，主控大楼旁设有两根交叉偶极子高频天线和一个天线罩（与东南设施中的天线罩类似）。2025年铺设的加固电缆沟表明，未来可能会增加更多天线。

这两个设施很可能构成一个基地级指挥、控制、通信、计算机、情报、监视和侦察 (C4ISR) 架构的两部分，为解放军提供该地区作战环境的更全面、更强大的信息。

点击此处查看包含详细卫星图像的摘要PDF文件。

基地新设备的类型和方向多种多样，能够传输和检测各种信号和频率。

实际上，这套新设备使解放军能够与在该地区活动的中国舰船和飞机保持冗余的超视距通信，并提供与中国指挥总部之间的安全通信渠道。

这些设施很可能也使解放军能够监视附近其他军队的活动。虽然开源方法无法确认是否正在进行被动信号情报收集，但这些新资产几乎肯定会支持信号情报任务。尽管军事通信经过加密，但解放军可以通过观察信号的方向、来源、频率和速度，获取有关美国和其他国家军队行动的宝贵信息。

2017年8月1日，正值中国人民解放军建军90周年之际，中国人民解放军在吉布提举行了首个海外军事支援基地的启用仪式。

2017年8月1日，正值中国人民解放军建军90周年之际，解放军在吉布提举行了其首个海外军事支援基地的启用仪式。

近期中东地区的冲突极大地提升了中国在吉布提的信号情报能力的重要性。自2023年底以来，胡塞武装对红海航运的袭击以及美国和以色列针对伊朗的军事行动升级，已将大量美军力量引入该地区。到2026年7月，超过20艘美国海军军舰，包括两个航母打击群和数百架飞机，正在支援针对伊朗和霍尔木兹海峡周边的军事行动。

这些新设施还有助于中国深入了解非洲的活动，北京在非洲拥有深厚的经济利益，安全联系也日益紧密。近年来，中国在该地区建设了地面空间基础设施，以弥补其全球空间跟踪和数据中继网络的覆盖盲区。吉布提基地的升级改造，为中国不断扩展的全球设施网络增添了更多节点，这些节点可以将信息反馈给国家情报机构。

综合来看，吉布提基地的这些升级使中国拥有了一个覆盖中东和非洲大部分地区的持续前沿C4ISR节点。这对于寻求更深入了解区域作战环境以便将力量投射到更远地区的中国而言可能至关重要。

本报告由 Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas 实验室制作。

作者：Matthew P. Funaiole、Brian Hart、Aidan Powers-Riggs 和 Douglas Comstock

卫星图像分析支持：Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.

制作人：迈克尔·科勒

设计支持：威廉·泰勒

编辑支持：Kelsey Hartman 和 Phillip Meylan

战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）于 60 多年前在华盛顿特区成立，是一个两党合作的非营利性政策研究机构，致力于推进应对世界最大挑战的实用理念。

“隐秘影响力”是战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）的一项特别计划，旨在揭示中国在海外深远影响中那些鲜为人知的来源。

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