Pouya Nadimi, senior researcher in defense and security affairs at the Washington Institute, said, while referring to the outfitting of a military base in Djibouti by China with new communications equipment, that these tools could enable China to track the location of ships and monitor maritime activity, especially that of U.S. forces.

He added that analyzing signals and changes in radio traffic could help China identify shifts in the deployment of forces and understand how U.S. carrier groups operate.