China’s growing security footprint in Africa

In recent years, China’s strategy in Africa has evolved from primarily economic engagements to a pronounced emphasis on security collaborations. This pivot became formalized during the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing last month, at which China committed billions over the next three years, including the allocation of $140 million specifically for security cooperation.
Growing instability across Africa, marked by socioeconomic upheavals, unsustainable debt, coups, armed banditry, and terrorism, is a key driver of this shift in strategy as Beijing seeks to safeguard its investments and project power on a convulsing continent.
China’s expanding security footprint is not merely a matter of scale, it also signals a shift in geopolitical dynamics. By conducting military exercises, such as the Peace Unity 2024 maneuvers with Tanzania and Mozambique in August, and transferring an increasing quantity of arms, surpassing even Russia’s weapons exports to the region, China aims to cement its position as a formidable security partner. This includes the training of thousands of African military and law enforcement personnel, a move that intertwines Beijing’s model of governance with Africa’s military infrastructure.
As Beijing moves to invest heavily in Africa’s security, the implications extend beyond traditional economic ties and the pursuit of soft power gains among disillusioned countries that feel left behind in the growing divide between the Global North and South; it positions a once reluctant China as a dominant force in Africa’s evolving security scenario.
The increasing dominance of Beijing in arms transfers to sub-Saharan Africa marks a decisive shift in the continent’s geopolitical dynamics. China was responsible for a fifth of the region’s arms imports between 2019 and 2023, surpassing Russia’s contribution, and is leveraging its competitive pricing and flexible financing arrangements to cement its role as a primary arms supplier at a time when regimes, tyrants, and aspiring despots are looking beyond a Moscow crippled by its war in Ukraine.
This strategy not only diversifies military resources in African nations, it also extends China’s influence within the continent’s security sector, defying conventional arms transfer models and placing Beijing on a probable collision course with fellow UN Security Council members who advocate for arms embargoes as a tool for seeking peace and stabilization.
China’s military involvement extends beyond traditional hardware. The deployment of advanced technologies, such as drones and warships, highlights Beijing’s resolve as it strives to maintain its edge in the rapidly evolving arms market and the rush to project power across a continent on which countries are increasingly assertive and poised to recalibrate traditional partnerships.
For instance, sales of the Cai Hong-4 unmanned aerial vehicle to Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are part of this strategy in a calculated effort to align military support with economic partnerships free of the pesky strings that are usually attached to engagements with Western countries.
Beyond the arms transfers and military exercises uncomfortably close to global chokepoints and NATO’s southern flank, Beijing is also providing training for more than 6,000 military personnel and 1,000 law enforcement officers, in pursuit of longer-term alliances and advocacy of its governance model across Africa.
As increasingly sophisticated arms proliferate, they raise the stakes in already volatile regions, helping to empower regimes while potentially escalating conflicts in ungoverned spaces. The influx of Chinese military hardware, from drones to armored vehicles, into countries such as Libya further entrenches China’s strategic interests. This evolution will undoubtedly lead to a profound recalibration of Africa's security landscape, with enduring implications for the continent.

China’s expanding security footprint in Africa involves the practical provision of security through Chinese private security companies.

Hafed Al-Ghwell

China’s shift from being Africa’s chief economic partner, through Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure project, to aggressive efforts to position itself as the continent’s security guarantor not only expands China’s footprint there, it mirrors historical patterns of foreign influence in Africa. Unlike its Western predecessors and geopolitical rivals that marched into the continent on flimsy pretexts, only to succumb to unceremonious exits leaving behind a trail of instability, China is trying something a little different by cementing its presence there while attempting to safeguard its growing investments.
Through its Global Security Initiative, Beijing hopes to orchestrate this shift by deepening security ties and deploying resources, labor and expertise to bolster Africa’s military and infrastructure defenses. This proactive stance is not purely altruistic; it helps mitigate potential risks to Chinese investments, including extensive infrastructure projects, and cultivates dependencies that can be leveraged for deeper political and economic alliances.
China’s support, including the training of thousands of military personnel and the provision of substantial military assistance grants, reflects a determination to further entwine African states within its sphere of influence.
Effects on the ground are already observable. The professionalization of local security forces as a result of Chinese training programs is slowly reshaping the military landscape in several African countries. This has resulted in enhanced local security apparatus that is capable of more effectively managing internal threats.
China’s expanding security footprint in Africa is not only a matter of arms or military training, it also involves the practical provision of security through Chinese private security companies. This strategic deployment helps address pressing security gaps, thereby positioning Beijing as a critical player in African security affairs without committing extensive state military resources.
However, while such efforts reinforce China’s position as Africa’s largest trading partner, they carry the potential risk of entangling Beijing in conflicts in which the interests of individual state partners might collide with wider regional escalations. In some cases, China could find itself compromised by deepening ties on both sides of a conflict and therefore unable to de-escalate tensions fueled by deep-rooted historical grievances.
China’s approach diverges from prior Western interventions by emphasizing the importance of sovereignty and non-interference, to help bolster its own hegemony and protect its vested interests. Yet this growing influence comes at the cost of potentially increased African dependencies on Chinese military aid and governance models. Beijing’s emerging role as a security guarantor might therefore inadvertently reduce the independence of African states.
This new scramble for Africa therefore involves an aggressive and calculated engagement by China with the continent's security dynamics. While this approach might bring stability to certain regions, equally it heralds the possibility of troubling geopolitical shifts. Questions remain about China’s broader ramifications for African sovereignty. As Beijing continues to bolster military alliances and arms transfers, the continent stands on the cusp of a transformation of power dynamics that might reinforce Beijing’s economic and strategic foothold there while redefining Africa’s own security trajectory.

• Hafed Al-Ghwell is a senior fellow and executive director of the North Africa Initiative at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. X: @HafedAlGhwell