Harboring Global Ambitions: China's Ports Footprint and Implications for Future Overseas Naval Bases

China has emerged as a dominant maritime nation, with significant commercial and military influence across the world's seas. Beijing has rapidly increased its investments in global port infrastructure, and the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has evolved from a coastal force to the world’s largest blue-water navy. Yet, China has just one official overseas naval base: a facility in Djibouti. In Harboring Global Ambitions: China’s Ports Footprint and Implications for Future Overseas Naval Bases, we scrutinize China's options for establishing additional overseas naval bases. Leveraging a new dataset and additional research, we “follow the money” to identify the top 20 ports that have received the most official financing from China; analyze potential basing options ocean by ocean; and propose a shortlist of eight locations for future bases. Our accompanying dataset, China’s Official Seaport Finance Dataset, 2000-2021, tracks 123 seaport projects worth $29.9 billion financed by Chinese state-owned entities to construct or expand 78 ports in 46 countries. We argue that the potential for additional Chinese overseas naval bases has significant implications for global politics and requires cautious strategic responses from the West and developing countries.