The small South African town the United States and China want to control

The small South African town of Simon’s Town has garnered increasing attention from global superpowers who want to exert control over major trade routes as the global order fragments. 

Simon’s Town is one of three points that anchor major trade routes in and out of the Indo-Pacific region, through which more than half of global trade travels. 

It has also become increasingly important amid regular disruptions to cargo flows through the Suez Canal due to blockages and terrorist activity. 

This has seen a rise in trade being rerouted around the southern tip of Africa, increasing the strategic value of Simon’s Town as the major naval base that anchors this route. 

With geopolitical tensions ratcheting up between the United States and China, control of major trade routes is becoming increasingly important. 

This has been coupled with South Africa’s steady weakening on the global stage, with its hard and soft power being eroded by a weak economy, declining industrial capacity, and foreign policy missteps. 

The Centre for Risk Analysis’ Chris Hattingh warned that South Africa risks becoming increasingly irrelevant in a world where international law is superseded by great powers, as it was in Venezuela. 

“Countries that struggle to accept this new reality will find solace in grand statements of morality and theory but will find themselves largely ineffective in practically influencing events,” Hattingh said. 

“One of those countries is South Africa; we are incapable of allowing or stopping anything in global matters as a consequence of our own policy choices.”

South Africa is increasingly being pushed between the two preeminent powers, with China investing heavily in the local economy and leveraging its relationship through BRICS to conduct naval exercises in the region. 

These exercises enable China to project its power in the region and to influence the trade route around the southern tip of Africa. 

The latest exercises between members of BRICS, the so-called Will for Peace 2026, have begun in South Africa’s territorial waters. Crucially, these exercises use Simon’s Town as a base. 

South Africa has said the drills are aimed at improving cooperation and the safety of key maritime routes for cargo ships.

The country has faced increasingly intense criticism from the Trump administration in the United States about its close relations with China, Iran and Russia. 

Trump has previously accused BRICS countries of advancing “anti-American” agendas, and last January threatened member states with an additional 10% trade tariff on top of broader duties imposed globally.

Why Simon’s Town

The location of Simon’s Town on one of the world’s major trade routes and as an access point to both the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific is one of the major reasons why South Africa is receiving so much attention from global powers. 

Political analyst Dr Frans Cronje explained that Simon’s Town is re-emerging as a vital choke point in international trade. 

“We are now living in a multipolar world where there are competing power blocs looking to control or influence key choke points,” Cronje explained. 

Alongside the Solomon Islands and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, Simon’s Town anchors the Indo-Pacific and provides a base from which power can be projected across the region. 

“The Americans understand that Simon’s Town is one of the three points that anchor control of the Indo-Pacific,” Cronje said. 

“They are in some trouble on the other points, such as the Solomon Islands and the Bab al-Mandab Strait, so Simon’s Town has suddenly become very important to them.” 

Furthermore, Simon’s Town is the backdoor to the South Atlantic, which is another crucial region considering the oil discoveries off the coast of Namibia and the rise of South America economically.

“It takes rudimentary diplomatic skill to take America’s fixed investment interest and South Africa’s strategic importance to form a new bilateral treaty,” Cronje said. 

A new bilateral trade treaty with the United States could meaningfully increase fixed investment in South Africa and boost economic growth. 

“I think it is a vast opportunity for this government that they can take advantage of if they can adopt the correct strategy,” he said.

The American interest in Simon’s Town and South Africa has taken on new importance in recent years, with Chinese fixed investment in Africa surging. 

“The Americans have fallen behind China in terms of fixed investment in Africa, and the continent is important. It now has more cities of a million inhabitants or more than Europe and America combined,” Cronje said. 

Africa remains the last untapped global consumer market, with its population steadily growing healthier and wealthier. 

South Africa is particularly important for the United States, given its influence as the largest economy on the continent and its democratic institutions.