By Emily CraneDecember 6, 2021 11:20am  Updated

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China may be looking at setting up its first military base off Africa’s Atlantic coast, according to classified US intelligence reports.

US officials told the Wall Street Journal that intelligence suggests China is eyeing the small African nation of Equatorial Guinea for its base.

The intelligence has set off alarm bells in Washington because China’s presence in the Atlantic Ocean enhances potential threats against the US, the officials said.

If China had a military base in Equatorial Guinea, it would allow Chinese warships to re-arm close to the US East Coast.00:1101:42https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.490.0_en.html#goog_1864605151https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.490.0_en.html#goog_699674326https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.490.0_en.html#goog_1438667581javascript:falsejavascript:false

The officials wouldn’t provide specific details on what the intelligence reports showed regarding China’s plans.

The White House and Pentagon have already been pushing Equatorial Guinea to reject any potential proposal from China, the officials said.

“As part of our diplomacy to address maritime-security issues, we have made clear to Equatorial Guinea that certain potential steps involving [Chinese] activity there would raise national-security concerns,” a senior Biden administration official told the outlet.

Jon Finer, President Biden’s principal national security adviser, traveled to the African country in October to meet with Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

According to a White House statement at the time, the pair discussed – among other things — “maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.”

It comes after Gen. Stephen Townsend, who serves as commander of US Africa Command, warned during a Senate hearing in April that China’s “most significant threat” would be “a militarily useful naval facility on the Atlantic coast of Africa.” 

“By militarily useful I mean something more than a place that they can make port calls and get gas and groceries. I’m talking about a port where they can rearm with munitions and repair naval vessels,” Townsend told the Senate at the time.

Tensions have been running high between the US and China over the South China Sea, Taiwan and military supremacy in Indo-Pacific region.

And the Biden administration announced on Monday a diplomatic boycott of February’s Winter Olympics in Beijing over China’s “egregious” human rights abuses.

China’s government threatened “firm countermeasures” if the boycott went ahead.