The Dragon in Djibouti: the Shifting Tides of China’s Strategy

... consistently sought to increase its security presence on the continent. First, by raising its contributions to UN peacekeeping missions from 52 personnel in 2000 to 3,040 personnel deployed in 2015, but also through agreements such as the one with Djibouti, which appears crucial to China considering that the Gulf of Aden is the main shipping route for Chinese oil imports from the Middle East and East Africa. The creation of the base in Djibouti may also be seen through the lens of China’s changing military strategy and the PRC’s emerging ambition to ...