Ace of bases

In march, nearly five years after it opened, China’s military base at Djibouti had its first port call, the Luomahu, a supply ship. There was no pomp and circumstance about it. But the structure it docked at is of more consequence. Jutting 1,100 feet (335m) into the Gulf of Aden is a pier large enough, say American analysts, to take aircraft-carriers, amphibious assault ships or nuclear submarines. And in Tanzania China is also pushing to revive a $10bn deepwater port that could take much the same hardware.