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Beijing has transformed the Red Sea into a dangerous surveillance hub, a former Pentagon official warned Sunday, after a new report revealed upgrades to China’s military footprint just six miles from a key $66 million-a-year U.S. military base in Djibouti, Africa.
The report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) cited new facilities which it said would likely enable the Chinese military to monitor activities of other militaries operating nearby, although it also clarified it was not possible to determine whether China was actively intercepting communications.
The developments, one defense expert told Digital, could also inject fresh tension into U.S.-China relations in the run-up to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the White House on Sept. 24. Beijing’s intelligence-gathering capabilities are already under renewed scrutiny.
“What China is clearly doing is building eavesdropping capabilities. That seems to be their aim,” Morgan Murphy, former Trump White House official and press secretary for Mark Esper when he was secretary of defense during the first Trump administration.
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Morgan Murphy said it was significant that China has chosen to place its only overseas base six miles from America’s base in Djibouti. ( STR/AFP via Getty Images)
“Beijing has clearly wiretapped the Red Sea. When you build a 30-meter (100-foot-wide) satellite dish and cover it with a dome, so nobody can see where it’s pointing, it’s pretty clear you’re up to no good,” Murphy added while stating of the Washington-based think tank, that “the specificity here reflects the thorough research we expect out of CSIS.”
The report pinpoints a large southeastern facility showing a control building, three 30-meter dipole antennas for high-frequency communications, two smaller antennas for very and “ultra-high frequencies”, three mobile satellite dishes, four probable 5G towers and what CSIS said was a “radome” covering an unidentified asset.
CSIS also highlighted two new communications facilities that it says have emerged since 2024 that are likely to form part of a C4ISR command architecture, expanding China’s ability to intercept signals, track naval movements and communicate with Beijing while monitoring foreign militaries in the region.
The facilities would provide China with “a much more robust picture of the operating environment in the region,” the report said.
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CSIS said commercial satellite imagery revealed that China’s military had installed new antennas, satellite communications equipment and signals intelligence assets at its base in Djibouti — its only formally acknowledged overseas military installation. (Planet Labs / Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS))
“This isn’t a supply depot — it’s a 50-yard line seat over America’s power projection and the U.S. Navy,” Murphy said before stating that the USA has “128 bases in more than 51 countries — China has just one.”
“But look at the location — a few miles from Camp Lemonnier, overlooking the chokepoint that moves roughly a sixth of global sea trade. Great powers don’t plant listening posts next to rival fleets for ‘logistics,'” he warned.
“Britain held Gibraltar to see who entered the Med while Japan’s island radios came before the runways. The Soviets’ overseas sites were never just about fuel and Beijing is running that playbook on the Red Sea,” Murphy added.
Although China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jian said China is “unaware of the specific situation” and framed the country as a “builder of international peace,” the new facilities provide Beijing with a picture of regional operations, according to Reuters.
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Beijing has transformed the Red Sea into a surveillance hub, former Pentagon officials warned after a new report revealed upgrades to China’s military footprint in Djibouti. ( DAPHNE BENOIT/AFP via Getty Images)
“The new report is helpful in framing the conversation, and it comes at an awkward time for China because Xi Jinping is visiting the White House on the 24th of this month,” Murphy said.
“I’d bet a box of donuts this issue comes up. There is going to be public exposure of this, which Chinese leadership isn’t used to. They aren’t used to being asked tough questions by the press,” he said.
President Donald Trump recently addressed Chinese intelligence efforts aboard Air Force One, acknowledging that China “spies on us” just as “we spy on them.”
Trump’s comments followed a report by The Wall Street Journal linking support from a Chinese entity to high-resolution satellite imagery used by Iran prior to a deadly missile attack on U.S. troops in Jordan.
“They basically do what we do,” Trump noted, adding that “Xi has behaved reasonably well, and we behave reasonably well. … You know what they say? That China spies on us. I say you’re right, and we spy on them, too,” he said, according to Reuters.
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President Donald Trump greets Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of a bilateral meeting at Gimhae Air Base on Oct. 30, 2025 in Busan, South Korea. Trump said he wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open in the Middle East for countries, including China. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Murphy noted, “Nations spy on each other — allies and adversaries alike.”
“It is a very old playbook, and listening posts all over the world are typical of great powers, but where the metal hits the floorboard is when you try to use that information,” he said before adding that China may “keep tabs on us, but they cannot project power like the United States can.”
The proximity of China’s facility to U.S. operations is a core concern. Located less than six miles from Camp Lemonnier — the primary U.S. counterterrorism hub in Africa — and near French, Italian and Japanese installations, the site has a history of friction with U.S. forces.
“We are just right around the corner from China, and yet it’s not a cooperative relationship,” Murphy explained.
“Back in 2018, they lasered two of our C-130 pilots’ eyes who suffered lasting damage from that incident. Beijing denied it, of course, but we know the truth.”
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US military aircraft as seen at US Military Base Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti. Camp Lemonnier is the only permanent United States military base in Africa. (Getty Images)
During the 2018 incident, the Pentagon had formally complained to China after military-grade lasers were pointed at American pilots attempting to land at Camp Lemonnier, causing minor injuries.
While Beijing dismissed the allegations as “groundless accusations,” the confrontation underscored the potential for friction between military forces operating from nearby bases.
“China has one overseas base. The United States has more than 128 — by some counts, over 700 installations around the world,” Murphy said.
“So it’s significant that China has chosen to place its only overseas base six miles from ours in Djibouti. It is hugely strategically important, which is why, of course, we’re there.”
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The north-west facility at the Chinese base in Djibouti features a possible communications building and a ‘radome’ with an unidentified asset, images show. (Planet Labs / Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS))
“It’s our only base on the continent of Africa,” he said, noting that it shares a “parking lot” with Japanese and Italian bases.
“At $66 million a year, it’s the best money Americans spend on our defense budget, full stop.”
The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is a chokepoint for nearly 16% of global maritime trade and, with significant crude shipments, Houthi attacks and pipeline disruptions have fueled a regional military buildup.
“Interference by China is in their strategic interest. They don’t want to see the United States able to control their oil supply,” Murphy said.
“China is far more reliant on Middle Eastern oil than the United States. China imports a huge portion — around 33% or more — of their daily oil needs and is highly reliant on long sea lines. You are seeing this muscle-flexing because they are far more reliant on Middle Eastern oil than we are.”
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Satellite imagery shows Bab-al-Mandeb Strait, a key shipping waterway and the gateway to the Red Sea, as Iran threatens using Yemen’s Houthi allies to shut the Bab-al-Mandeb gateway to the Red Sea, in this handout picture dated July 12, 2026. (Nasa Worldview/Handout via Reuters)
“Having intelligence is one thing, but you must have the ability to act on it. You need assets in the region,” Murphy said.
“China doesn’t have major combat assets outside their region because they lack a blue-water navy to project power outside the first island chain yet.
“That is coming, and they are working towards it quickly. Americans can take comfort in the fact that they don’t have that capacity today, but we must stay alert because the only thing that subdues a threat is a ready posture,” he concluded.
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Digital has reached out to the Chinese Embassy for comment.
