• U.S. intelligence officials believe that China is in talks with Equatorial Guinea to build a military port in the city of Bata
  • China currently has only one overseas military base – in Djibouti, on the Eastern coast of Africa – which opened in 2017
  • The prospect of Beijing adding a second base, and one that faces the Atlantic and the United States, has deeply troubled Washington
  • Joe Biden sent deputy National Security Advisor, Jonathan Finer, to Equatorial Guinea in October to try and convince the president to turn China down 
  • President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 79, and his son and heir apparent Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, 53, are courting both the U.S. and China
  • China helps train and arm the country’s police, but Equatorial Guinea relies on U.S. technology to access its significant oil reservesÂ