There was a period of over two years between the start of negotiations and formal opening of the Djibouti Army Support Base. Despite speculation, there are not yet confirmations that formal negotiations have begun in Bata or Libreville.
In addition, although the PRC has economic interests in Africa, its primary military focus in on Taiwan. The PLA is also plagued with internal corruption issues. It seems unlikely that they are in a position to expand their presence in Africa.
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Why might you be wrong?
Unlike the Djbouti base, there are existing deepwater ports in Africa that could be converted or that could be dual-use. This could speed up the timeframe between negotiations and base opening.
Good idea to look at the time the process took for Djibouti, @lzhang ! As for our question base under construction would still mean a resolution as yes, I think we should look at the time between reports of negotiations and reports of construction start.
Why do you think you're right?
There was a period of over two years between the start of negotiations and formal opening of the Djibouti Army Support Base. Despite speculation, there are not yet confirmations that formal negotiations have begun in Bata or Libreville.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170518023041/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2015/05/150509084913175.html
In addition, although the PRC has economic interests in Africa, its primary military focus in on Taiwan. The PLA is also plagued with internal corruption issues. It seems unlikely that they are in a position to expand their presence in Africa.
Why might you be wrong?
Unlike the Djbouti base, there are existing deepwater ports in Africa that could be converted or that could be dual-use. This could speed up the timeframe between negotiations and base opening.
The PRC has explicitly defined a goal as "establishing a world-class army" and may interpret that to include more overseas basing: https://jamestown.org/program/pla-declares-world-class-ambitions-with-strongest-army-benchmark/