For more than two centuries, the Manila Galleons carried Chinese silk, porcelain, and spices across the Pacific to Acapulco. From there, the cargo crossed Mexico before joining Spanish treasure fleets sailing to Europe, almost always stopping in the Canary Islands before catching the Atlantic trade winds. That maritime network became the world’s first truly global commercial route.
Five centuries later, Beijing is quietly rebuilding much of the same corridor — not with imperial fleets, but with ports, factories, logistics hubs, and digital infrastructure linking Morocco to the Canary Islands. Nevertheless, Washington barely seems to notice.
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American policymakers often view Chinese investments in North Africa and the eastern Atlantic as isolated commercial ventures. They are better understood as pieces of a long-term strategy to expand Beijing’s economic influence across one of history’s most valuable maritime crossroads. The objective is not simply to move cargo more efficiently; it is to embed Chinese capital, technology, and commercial leverage into critical supply chains connecting Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
Morocco has become indispensable to that effort. After joining China’s Belt and Road Initiative in 2017 and later signing a joint implementation plan, Rabat attracted billions of dollars in Chinese investment. Projects include the Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, Gotion High-Tech’s $1.3 billion battery gigafactory in Kenitra, BTR’s $300 million cathode materials plant, and China Merchants Port’s 40% stake in Tangier Med 2. This multibillion-dollar commercial surge has turned Tangier Med into Africa’s undisputed busiest container port, serving as China’s gateway to the West.
The Canary Islands reveal a parallel trend. After the arrival of Spain’s corruption-plagued and increasingly autocratic Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, Chinese imports into the archipelago continue rising. Under his watch, state-linked fishing fleets regularly operate from Las Palmas, commercial partnerships increasingly position the islands as a gateway to West Africa, and expanding aviation links reinforce their role as an Atlantic logistics platform. Considered independently, these developments appear routine. Together, they form an integrated commercial ecosystem spanning both shores of the Strait of Gibraltar.
History should make Americans uneasy. For centuries, the waters separating Morocco from the Canary Islands served as a contested trench from where trade, naval power, and political influence converged. Now, the battlefield has shifted from wooden galleons to state-backed capital. Still, the prize remains the same: whoever cedes this critical chokepoint to the Chinese Communist Party forfeits strategic control of the Atlantic.
This matters directly to the United States. Morocco remains one of America’s closest security partners in North Africa. At the same time, the Canary Islands occupy a strategic position along Atlantic sea lanes supporting NATO operations, trans-Atlantic commerce, and access to West Africa. Infrastructure promoted as purely commercial can also provide enduring political leverage, logistical flexibility, and dual-use capabilities during future crises. China has repeatedly demonstrated that ports, industrial zones, and telecommunications networks are instruments of statecraft as much as engines of commerce.
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Consequently, Washington should respond with a strategy rather than panic. Strengthening economic engagement with Morocco, encouraging greater American investment in Atlantic infrastructure, expanding maritime cooperation with Rabat, integrating the eastern Atlantic more fully into transatlantic security planning, and recognizing Morocco’s rightful sovereignty over Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands would offer credible alternatives to growing Chinese influence.
The first global trade route transformed world history by connecting continents that had never before operated as a single commercial system. China understands that strategic geography still shapes global power. Unless Washington rediscovers the Atlantic importance of the Morocco–Canary Islands corridor, it risks watching Beijing consolidate influence over one of the world’s oldest — and once again one of its most consequential — maritime gateways.
Jose Lev Alvarez is an American–Israeli scholar specializing in international security policy. A multilingual veteran of the IDF special forces and the U.S. Army, he holds three master’s degrees and is completing a Ph.D. in Intelligence and Global Security in the Washington, D.C., area.
