The United States military is turning up the volume on its longstanding allegation that China is actively considering building new military bases around the world, including in four African countries. The Pentagon restated the assertion earlier this month in a report to Congress, even though it remains unsubstantiated by any publicly available evidence.

Nonetheless, U.S. Generals continue to insist this to be the case and, in what’s become a regular occurrence, invited a major American news network to report from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti to drive home the point. On Friday, NBC News broadcast a story from the U.S. base that featured an interview with the U.S. military’s most senior officer in Africa, Major General William Zana, who reiterated statements on the issue made earlier this year by his boss, AFRICOM Commander Stephen Townsend: