China's New Defense White Paper and Africa

China's State Council published on 24 July 2019 its first defense white paper since 2015. The most recent one is titled "National Defense in the New Era."

There are few references to Africa in the white paper and no surprises. There is mention of China's "support base" in Djibouti, a euphemism for its military base. The paper continues to commit China to support of UN peacekeeping operations in Africa and the anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden. There is reference to the first meeting in 2018 of the China-Africa Defense and Security Forum and China's military contribution to combating Ebola in West Africa in 2014.