When China opened its first-ever overseas military base in Djibouti just days ago, Asia’s pre-eminent power was declaring in no uncertain terms that it will sit on the side-lines no longer. Coinciding with the 90th birthday of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the base was merely the latest display of China’s deepening involvement in the Horn of Africa’s security. For years, it has been testing, refining and growing its clout in turbulent South Sudan—an indication that its adherence to the longstanding policy of non-interference is becoming less doctrinaire.
China initially found itself in South Sudan’s conflicts more by default than design. Just two years after it gained independence, civil war broke out in December 2013. Beijing was faced with the choice of stepping in and supporting mediation or withdrawing and abandoning its assets—most significantly oil fields—to looting and destruction.
It wasn’t an easy decision as greater involvement went against decades of caution and aversion to responsibility ingrained in China’s foreign policy doctrine. Chinese companies and diaspora had spread far and wide, often to unstable regions, since its “Go Out” policy in the 1990s. But when instability turned into crises, Beijing had invariably opted for withdrawal. From 2006 to 2011, China conducted ten large-scale evacuations of nationals from foreign countries due to unrest, wars and natural disasters. Chinese diplomats had reasoned that the best course was to pack up and cut losses as China had neither the desire nor the capabilities to interfere in another country’s affairs.