China Eyes a Forward Base in the Atlantic

Last Tuesday, the US House of Representatives unanimously voted to block the Air Force from reducing its presence at Lajes Field. Congress did the right thing in freezing, at least for the moment, the American withdrawal from the Portuguese base on Terceira, one of the Azores.

Lajes, formally called Air Base No. 4, is the second-largest employer on the economically depressed island in the Atlantic Ocean. The Air Force had planned to send home 400 of the 650 military personnel and civilian employees as well as 500 family members. The transfers would have devastated the economy of Terceira and put many of the base’s 790 Portuguese workers out on the street.

Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California, talks about the base as a logistical hub and as a spot needed for the fight against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and he’s right.  Nonetheless, Lajes’s strategic role has been diminished over time, and the Pentagon’s proposed cuts reflect that fact.

The Chinese, however, view Lajes differently. In June of last year, then Premier Wen Jiabao stopped there, adding thousands of miles to his journey back home from South America, so that he could say hello to local officials and tour the remote island. And at the end of last month, Huang Songfu, China’s ambassador to Portugal, went to out-of-the-way Terceira, calling on President Vasco Cordeiro, the head of the Regional Government of the Azores, to talk about Chinese tourism to the island and Azorean dairy exports.

What was almost certainly on Huang’s mind was China taking over Lajes, something Beijing has, according to Washington insiders, apparently discussed with Portuguese authorities. Lisbon officials don’t want to invite the Chinese in, but they have quietly indicated they will have no choice if the US Air Force decides to leave the base.

It’s not hard to see why Beijing wants Lajes. Chinese planes taking off from the 10,865-foot runway on the northeast edge of Terceira could patrol the Atlantic and potentially disrupt air and sea traffic between the US and Europe. Beijing could also affect access to the nearby Mediterranean Sea, or even target the American mainland.

Phasing out Lajes, which the Pentagon ultimately contemplates, would be budget cutting of the worst sort. Just think how much more costly it would be to defend against Chinese troublemaking in the Atlantic. In the long run, it would be far less expensive to maintain personnel at Lajes to keep it out of Beijing’s hands. 

In the meantime, the Senate takes up the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 sometime after Labor Day, which means the Lajes issue has not been resolved and cuts could still be made.

The Chinese military, of course, would like that very much.

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