Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 19, 2023

Geostrategy-Direct

By Richard Fisher July 18, 2023

Since 2009 China has been Africa’s largest trading partner.

All but one of Africa’s 54 states are in the China-led Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) formed in 2000 and over 50 African countries joined the 2019 and 2022 China-led China-Africa Peace and Security Forums (CAPSF) — the only Pan-African security initiative organized by a foreign power.

China is a major source of conventional weapons for the continent, providing advanced unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs) to many African states.

China’s only foreign naval/air/army base is in Djibouti, and China may be seeking strategic naval access or bases in Nigeria, Tanzania and South Africa.

So, it is logical that China also seeks to dominate Africa’s space sector, though today it is the second largest space partner after France.

China likely seeks to create an additional layer of strategic leverage that Beijing can use to advance its broader economic and military-strategic goals on the continent and displace U.S. and European power.

In 2022, 13 African states had 48 space satellites and 7 were built and launched by China: Nigeria, two communication satellites, 2007and 2011; Algeria, one comsat, 2017; satellites for Ethiopia and Sudan in 2019; and two remote sensing satellites for Egypt in 2023.

In early 2023, a Chinese Hong Kong space company attempted to develop China’s first foreign space launch base in Djibouti, but the deal fell through for undisclosed reasons.

Space cooperation was highlighted in the November 2021 Chinese White Paper titled, “China and Africa in the New Era: A Partnership of Equals:”

“Breakthroughs have been made in space cooperation. Using China’s remote sensing data, the two parties carry out cooperation in the fields of disaster prevention and mitigation, radio astronomy, satellite navigation and positioning, and precision agriculture…The complete satellite assembly integration and test center built by Egypt with China’s help has laid solid foundations for Egypt’s aerospace industry.

China also assisted Algeria and Sudan to launch their first artificial satellites.”

While China promotes bi-lateral space relationships with African states, it will likely seek to develop multilateral cooperation through the African Space Agency, formed by the African Union in 2016 and that will be headquartered in Egypt.

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  China seeks to dominate Africa’s space sector, displacing U.S. and Europe