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On November 21, Xi Jinping made a "technical stopover" in Casablanca on his way back to China from his triumphant tour of South America. China's leader got the red carpet treatment on arrival, greeted by 21-year-old Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.
Why did Xi choose Morocco for his short, unscheduled layover?
Beijing, it appears, had two primary reasons. Morocco's special trade relations tie together three continents: Europe, North America, and Africa. The kingdom offers a trade-dependent China a backdoor to major markets.
Moreover, whoever rules Morocco can close off the western end of the Mediterranean Sea. Xi's signature Belt & Road Initiative is an ambitious program to control global shipping and trade flows, and domination of the Med is clearly part of the Chinese leader's plan.
With regard to controlling that crucial body of water, a year ago this month Mohammad Reza Naqdi issued a threat. "They shall soon await the closure of the Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar, and other waterways," the Iranian Revolutionary Guard general announced.
The prediction at the time seemed farfetched, but it was not as fantastical as it appeared. Then, Iran, through the Houthi militia, had already effectively closed off the eastern end of the Mediterranean by stopping shipping through the Red Sea.
Tehran and its backer China were also working on the western end of the Med, the Strait of Gibraltar. The pair had developed close ties with Algeria, Morocco's aggressive neighbor to its east, potentially threatening the nearby Strait of Gibraltar.
Controlling Morocco will complete the audacious Chinese plan: The Strait, with Morocco at its southern end, is only eight miles wide. Bringing the government in Rabat into China's orbit is certainly on Xi's long-term agenda.
Xi Jinping's shorter-term ambitions, however, focus on trade. "Morocco is perfect target for strategic Chinese investments," Thomas Riley told me this month. "It has had a bilateral free-trade agreement with the U.S. since 2006, the only FTA America maintains with an African country."
Moreover, as the former American ambassador to Rabat noted, Morocco also entered into the European Union-Morocco Association Agreement and began trading in selected products in 2000. Moreover, he pointed out, Morocco is inside the African Continental Free Trade Area, which includes 54 African states.
"Morocco offers a trade bridge when Xi Jinping really needs one," Jonathan Bass, who closely follows North African matters from his perch at Argent LNG, told me after Xi's visit. "From Beijing's perspective, Morocco is to the world like Hong Kong used to be to China: a way in to a large and otherwise restricted market."
Xi needs access to other markets more than ever before. Rejecting advice from just about every analyst and economist, China's leader has decided to export his way out of his country's worsening economic woes. His plan, however, has a crucial flaw: Countries will not, as they did in the first two decades of this century, allow another tidal wave of Chinese exports, "China Shock 2.0" as the Biden administration calls it.
The world's defenses are going up fast. President-Elect Donald Trump, for instance, announced he will impose both across-the-board tariffs on Chinese goods of at least 60 percent and an additional 10 percent tariff as punishment for China's fentanyl sales. Europe is following suit with trade restrictions as is Beijing's last hope, what Chinese officials call the "Global South."
To take advantage of Rabat's special trade status, China has been building manufacturing facilities on Moroccan soil. "In 2024 alone, five separate Chinese companies made commitments to invest over $4 billion to build factories producing electric-vehicle batteries and components," Riley points out.
For instance, Gotion High-tech plans in the third quarter of 2026 to start production at a $1.3 billion "gigafactory" in Morocco, the company announced in June. The facility will make batteries, cathodes, and anodes. Most of the production, Gotion said, will be exported.
In the previous month, two other Chinese battery manufacturers—Hailiang and Shinzoom—announced factories in the North African country. In March, Morocco approved the factory plans of BTR New Material Group, another Chinese electric battery manufacturer.
"These are clear moves to avoid U.S. and EU tariffs," Riley said.
Morocco's Dakhla, on the Atlantic Ocean south of the Strait of Gibraltar, is where geopolitics meet trade. The port is located in the highly contested Western Sahara. Both Morocco and Algeria disagree over the sovereignty of the vast territory.
The first Trump administration prioritized relations with Rabat, even negotiating one of the landmark Abraham Accords with the kingdom. Furthermore, Trump formally recognized Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, even agreeing to establish a consulate there. In December 2020, the Trump State Department announced the "Virtual Presence Post for Western Sahara." The Biden team has still not officially opened the full consulate, although it is virtually complete.
The Biden State Department distanced itself from Trump's full embrace of Morocco, but Trump in his second term can take up where he had left off. That will be especially important because China in recent years has strengthened ties with a belligerent Algiers.
And there is money to be made. Morocco is building the $1.2 billion Dakhla Atlantic Port project, which will be West Africa's gateway, avoiding the increasing instability in nearby regions.
China uses ports to tie regions to itself, and now America can do the same thing in Dakhla. After all, Washington does not want Beijing to be able to close off the Mediterranean or dominate the nearby parts of the Atlantic.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America and The Coming Collapse of China. Follow him on X @GordonGChang.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
