Beijing: China has announced plans to establish its first overseas military outpost in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, amid a sweeping overhaul of its military designed to make the world's largest army better equipped to project force abroad.
China's Defence Ministry refrained from calling the new installation a military base, instead saying the construction of "military supporting facilities" would help provide logistical support for Chinese peacekeeping and anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden. But analysts say the facility has potential to become a platform for operations in Africa and the Middle East.
The outpost, in the tiny former French colony bordering Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, is also the United States' only military base on the continent, used as a launching pad for its counter-terrorism operations and drones program in the region.
China has frequently cited its longstanding policy against emulating the US in building overseas military installations as evidence of its peaceful rise and lack of expansionist intentions.
But under President Xi Jinping, China has refocused the military's ambitions beyond its traditional role of protecting domestic borders, overseeing a rapid expansion of both geographic reach and technical capability to help safeguard its increasingly global economic interests, while backing up its more assertive stance on territorial claims in the East and South China seas.
On Thursday, Mr Xi unveiled a major reorganisation of the military which would see all branches of the People's Liberation Army come under a US-style joint military command by 2020. The country's existing seven military regions will be consolidated into four, a move designed to reinforce the Communist Party's "absolute leadership of the armed forces".
"Under the leadership of the party, the army has gone from small to large, from weak to strong and from victory to victory," Mr Xi told an assembly of more than 200 senior military leaders, according to official news agency Xinhua. "Now, as the country progresses from a large country to a large and powerful one, defence and military development stands at a new and historic starting line."
Tai Ming Cheung, the director of the Institute on Global Conflict & Cooperation at the University of California, San Diego, said that if implemented as planned, the changes represented "very far-reaching reforms". They follow a cut of 300,000 troops from the 2.3 million-strong army announced by Mr Xi during a military parade in September, while the military has been the focus of a deep anti-corruption purge.
"[These are] probably the most pivotal organisational changes in the PLA's history and certainly will mean plenty of winners and losers," Dr Cheung said.
China's planned facility in Djibouti reflects the leading role the navy has played in its drive for military modernisation, and its stated ambitions to be a leading maritime power.
It is also the product of China's extensive economic clout on the African continent. It has invested heavily in Djibouti's infrastructure, including an upgrade of the former French colony's port and a multibillion-dollar railroad that extends into landlocked Ethiopia, where China is investing in mining and natural gas extraction.
Djibouti's strategic location, in turn, enables China to protect its oil imports along a key shipping route from the Middle East. As well as the US, both Japan and France have a military presence in Djibouti.
"A Chinese decision to seek more permanent operational access - and a host country's decision to grant such access - represent monumental leaps for Chinese diplomatic and military policy," Andrew Erickson, an expert on Chinese military affairs at the US Naval War College, said in a blog post.
"China has for decades proudly proclaimed its lack of military facilities on foreign soil, so seeking long-term military access at a quasi-base level is a massive about-face. Djibouti is thereby helping to catalyse a potentially significant symbolic and substantive shift in China's foreign security policy."
