Alleged Pentagon Leaks: China, UAE Continued Secret Construction of Military Base

Some of the purportedly classified documents obtained from the “Discord Leaks,” named after the messaging platform used to post them, indicated that China is secretly constructing a military base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to the documents, U.S. intelligence services detected construction activity at the site a year after the UAE promised to shut it down.

“Activities at a port near Abu Dhabi are among several developments in the UAE involving the Chinese military that U.S. intelligence is monitoring out of concern that the Emiratis — a longtime U.S. security partner — are developing closer security ties to China at the expense of U.S. interests, according to the documents and related interviews with senior Biden administration officials,” the Washington Post reported Wednesday, strongly hinting that this particular trove of documents is authentic.

The Washington Post said it was the first media agency to review the UAE documents.

The individual accused of posting the documents online — who multiple media outlets have named as Massachusetts Air National Guard Airman Jack Teixeira, who was arrested this month following reports identifying him — reportedly posted first-hand transcriptions, and later photos of original documents, over a long period of time in an apparent bid to impress members of his Discord video-gaming group. Media organizations have spent the past few weeks digging through Discord archives and other websites, looking for more material possibly exposed.

The UAE documents concern a facility at Khalifa Port, located some 50 miles from the capital of Abu Dhabi. In November 2021, UAE officials called a public halt to a construction project undertaken by Chinese shipping giant COSCO after intense pressure from Washington.

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U.S. intelligence agencies said classified satellite images showed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China was building a military installation at Khalifa Port, concealed by the COSCO construction project.

The UAE, a close U.S. ally in the Middle East, stated that it had no “agreement, plan, talks, or intention to host a Chinese military base or outpost of any kind.”

U.S. officials were nevertheless apprehensive that the Emirates might be moving into China’s orbit, potentially endangering a proposed $23 billion sale of advanced U.S. weapons to Abu Dhabi. China has been pushing hard to establish a military and diplomatic presence in the Middle East and its efforts have been increasingly successful as the Gulf Arab nations question the Biden administration’s willingness, and ability, to protect them against Iran.

 

Canceling the Chinese project at Khalifa Port was seen in Washington as an encouraging step by the UAE to get relations with America back on track – but according to the Discord leaks, more work has been completed on the troubling PLA facility over the past year.

The facility, which the PLA purportedly calls “Project 141,” now boasts a “walled perimeter” and “likely was connected to municipal power and water” after the Emiratis claimed construction was halted.

“I don’t think that they’ve [the Emiratis] gone to the Chinese and said, ‘It’s over, we’re not going to do this,’” an unnamed Biden administration official glumly told the Washington Post on Wednesday.

“There are some people in the administration who think the UAE has fundamentally decided to work with us. I do not believe that,” said another dour Biden official. 

The Washington Post noted that some other members of the Biden team think the Khalifa Port situation is more “manageable.” Some of these officials wistfully speculated that the UAE has simply done a little maintenance work on the Chinese facility to keep it viable for less sinister purposes, and hoped satellite intelligence would reveal any major resumption of military construction.

The Emiratis refused to comment on the report, without explicitly denying the authenticity of the Discord documents, while the Chinese simply insisted the United States is “in no position to criticize other countries” because it has “more than 800 overseas military bases.”