The Chinese regime put on quite a show last week when it sent a navy frigate to Yemen and evacuated 225 nationals from 10 countries. It marked the first time the Chinese regime sent a naval warship to evacuate non-Chinese citizens from a foreign country.
It now appears, however, that the Chinese regime had other plans. The evacuations may have been little more than cover for a naval pivot.
The naval warships dispatched by the Chinese regime for the evacuation will now be staying in North Africa.
The Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, Sun Weidong, told the plan to Pakistani news outlet The News during a spring festival dinner on April 5.
Weidong said the warships of the Chinese regime’s People’s Liberation Army Navy will stay in the Gulf of Aden where, according to The News, they will “keep pirates away from one of the most important water courses in the world.”
The Gulf of Aden is a major shipping chokepoint at the Horn of Africa. The channel separating Somalia and Yemen connects the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and is near a key U.S. military outpost in Djibouti.
Several countries have been evacuating their citizens from Yemen, where a military conflict recently erupted with the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign against Houthi rebels, dubbed Operation Decisive Storm.
