Uganda’s growing defence partnership with China

How Beijing is changing Kampala’s security architecture through equipment transfer, defence technology, professional education, and military training

COVER STORY |  IAN KATUSIIME | Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the Chief of Defence Forces, welcomed executives from the Chinese defence giant Aerospace Long-March International Trade Co. (ALIT) to Fort Portal State Lodge in a meeting that attracted attention as another high-level engagement between Kampala and Beijing.

Beyond the photographs and diplomatic courtesies lies a broader story: the emergence of China as one of Uganda’s most significant defence partners, quietly reshaping military cooperation through equipment transfers, defence technology, professional training and growing strategic engagement.

ALIT is one of China’s principal state-owned arms exporters, marketing missile systems, air defence equipment, drones, armoured vehicles, radar and other military technologies. ALIT executives included Dr Chen Yan, Programme Director; Liu Yin Lead Advisor; and Teng Yaze, Director of Defence Systems.

ALIT is a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), one of China’s largest state-owned aerospace and defence conglomerates.

During a two-hour presentation at Fort Portal State Lodge, ALIT officials outlined the company’s portfolio of advanced defence technologies, including unmanned aerial systems, satellite capabilities, missile systems and integrated command-and-control solutions.

According to sources who attended the meeting, ALIT pitched a strategic partnership with the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) aimed at modernising Uganda’s defence architecture as the country confronts an increasingly complex security environment marked by terrorism, cross-border insecurity and rapidly evolving military technologies.

The meeting builds on a steadily expanding defence and security partnership between Uganda and China that has evolved over decades. In September 2025, Gen. Muhoozi visited China and met with his counterpart Gen. Liu Zhenli, Chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission, at the Chinese military headquarters in Beijing.

The visit culminated in the signing of a new bilateral defence cooperation agreement. The pact focused on enhancing military training, joint exercises, technology transfer, professional military education, and peace support operations.

Muhoozi’s delegation included Artillery Division Commander Maj. Gen. Dan Kakono and 4th Division Commander Maj. Gen. Felix Busizoori. They toured the China National Aero-Technology Import & Export Corporation (CATIC) to inspect cutting-edge military aviation equipment.

Uganda’s defence relationship with China dates back to the early years of President Yoweri Museveni’s government and has steadily evolved into one of Uganda’s most enduring strategic partnerships.

NORINCO’s role

One of its earliest milestones came in 1989 when the China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO), China’s leading state-owned defence manufacturer, established a presence in Uganda by constructing Luweero Industries, the country’s main munitions factory.

The project laid the foundation for decades of military cooperation that has since expanded beyond ammunition production to encompass defence technology, military hardware, officer training and defence industrialisation.

From helping establish Uganda’s munitions industry to supporting drone manufacturing and defence industrialisation, NORINCO’s presence mirrors the remarkable evolution of Uganda’s military partnership with China over more than three decades.

Over the years, NORINCO has become one of the UPDF’s major defence suppliers, providing infantry fighting vehicles, tanks and other land warfare systems as Uganda sought to modernise its military capabilities.

Another defining milestone in the partnership came in November 2023 with the groundbreaking of the Anfo Production Line in Nakasongola, the company’s joint venture with the UPDF. Presided over by then Defence Minister Vincent Sempijja and NORINCO Executive President Yang Xiaoqing, the project was presented as a major step in Uganda’s drive to develop an indigenous defence industry.

Defence officials said the facility would manufacture, assemble and service unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), serve as a research and development hub for drone technology, and produce up to 900 tonnes of explosives each month.

“NORINCO is honored to be a contributor and builder of this UAV workshop,” Xiaoqing said during the ceremony. “We look forward to jointly building it into the UAV industrial hub of sub-Saharan Africa.”

The launch was attended by the UPDF’s senior leadership, including then Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Wilson Mbadi, National Enterprise Corporation (NEC) Managing Director Lt. Gen. James Mugira, Luweero Industries Managing Director Maj. Gen. Sabiiti Muzeyi and then army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, underscoring the strategic importance attached to the project.

But there have been other Chinese companies as well. In January 2025, then Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs Jacob Oboth Oboth met a delegation from China National Precision Machinery Import and Export Corporation CPMIEC to discuss expanding cooperation in Uganda’s defence industry.

CPMIEC vice president Yu Tao said the company had been collaborating with Uganda for more than 14 years, according to a press release from the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs. Tao expressed interest in a new phase of cooperation.

The meeting at the ministry headquarters was attended by Permanent Secretary Rosette Byengoma, Deputy CDF Sam Okiding, Chief of Joint Staff Maj. Gen. Jackson Bakasaumba.

CPMIEC specialises in missile systems, air-defence systems, radar and precision guided weapons.

China Wanbao Engineering Company is another example. Although not a defence manufacturer, it has partnered with NORINCO in a joint venture for the manufacture of explosives. The joint venture is managed by NEC, UPDF’s private arm.

In 2021, Gen. Muhoozi, then Commander of the Special Forces Command (SFC), announced a partnership with Poly Technologies, another leading Chinese defence contractor, signalling Uganda’s growing interest in broadening military cooperation with China beyond conventional arms procurement to encompass technology transfer, industrial collaboration and long-term capability development.

Chinese military education 

A 2023 report titled ‘Chinese Professional Military Education for Africa’ by Paul Nantulya, a researcher on China-Africa relations, identifies Uganda as one of the African countries where China’s military education programmes have fostered enduring institutional ties.

The study notes that several senior UPDF officers have attended courses at the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Command College in Nanjing. These include Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, former Force Commander of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) between 2009 and 2011 and currently Deputy Head of Mission in Mogadishu, Somalia.

Former CDF Gen. David Muhoozi and former Minister of State for Internal Affairs studied at the PLA National Defence University, one of China’s premier institutions for senior military leaders. According to the report, these programmes have helped cultivate long-term professional relationships between the PLA and African militaries.

The report noted, “It can foster and strengthen ties to China among not only military personnel but also policymakers. In many African countries, the defense establishment has a close relationship with one or more Chinese schools based on deep benches of Chinese-trained alumni in influential positions in the country’s defense hierarchy.”

The report argues that Uganda’s experience mirrors a wider Chinese strategy across Africa. It cites institutional links between Tanzania and the Dalian Naval Academy, Ethiopia and the PLA National Defence University, and Mozambique and the Army Command College, noting that these long-standing relationships create networks of Chinese-trained officers who later occupy influential positions within their respective defence establishments.

“These affiliations afford the PLA an opportunity to shape military doctrine and concepts and to nurture personal ties.”

Gen. Muhoozi, who is President Museveni’s son, has not attended military courses in China recently but he has made his fondness for China well known. His social media offers a glimpse into his early exposure to China.

In a photograph shared on X on Feb. 10, 2022, Muhoozi recalled attending a course in China nearly three decades earlier. “Me in China 27 years ago! On a course. I think South Eastern Asians are the most intelligent human beings on earth. The way they think about everything is fascinating!”

Based on the timeline in the post, the visit would have taken place around 1995, when Muhoozi said he travelled to Hunan Province, the birthplace of Mao Zedong. Although he did not identify the institution or the nature of the programme, the post points to an early engagement with China that predates his rise through Uganda’s military leadership.

The China connection also resonates at the highest levels of Uganda’s political leadership. President Museveni has frequently cited Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong and former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in speeches and writings, praising aspects of their approaches to state-building, economic transformation and long-term strategic planning.

Analysts say such references reflect Museveni’s longstanding interest in China’s development model, providing an ideological backdrop to the steadily expanding political, economic and defence ties between Kampala and Beijing.

U.S. contrast

Uganda’s growing defence partnership with China has unfolded alongside—not in place of—its long-standing security relationship with the United States.

For more than two decades, the U.S. has remained one of Uganda’s key security partners, supporting the UPDF through intelligence sharing, counterterrorism cooperation, professional military education and assistance for regional peace support operations, particularly in Somalia.

American support has largely focused on enhancing the UPDF’s operational effectiveness through training, logistics and intelligence rather than supplying major conventional weapons systems or investing in defence manufacturing.

That enduring relationship was reaffirmed earlier this year when retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former National Security Advisor to President Donald Trump, visited Uganda at the invitation of Gen. Muhoozi.

Flynn held talks with President Museveni and Muhoozi on leadership, regional security and military cooperation before addressing senior UPDF officers. His visit underscored that despite Uganda’s deepening defence engagement with China, the U.S. continues to regard Uganda as an important regional security partner.

The US Embassy declined to comment on Uganda’s growing military ties with China and what it means for security cooperation between Kampala and Washington.

The contrast between the two relationships lies less in their significance than in their focus: while the U.S. has traditionally emphasised operational cooperation and intelligence, China has increasingly invested in military hardware, defence industrialisation, technology transfer and long-term capability development.

Uganda’s defence partnership with China reflects a broader strategy that Beijing has pursued across Africa over the past two decades. Through state-owned defence companies, professional military education, arms exports, officer exchanges and defence industrial cooperation, China has steadily expanded its military engagement with African countries while cultivating long-term institutional ties with their armed forces.

From Tanzania and Ethiopia to Nigeria and Mozambique, Chinese military cooperation increasingly extends beyond the supply of weapons to include technology transfer, defence industrialisation and strategic dialogue, positioning China as one of the continent’s most influential security partners.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 2024 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang said cooperation between China and African militaries had produced tangible results in military construction, personnel training, maritime security, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance.

Future cooperation

If recent engagements are any indication, Uganda’s defence partnership with China appears poised to move beyond conventional military hardware into the technologies that are reshaping modern warfare.

That trajectory was signalled by the NORINCO drone factory in Nakasongola. The discussions with ALIT build on that momentum as part of a broader vision for strengthening Uganda’s defence architecture.

Analysts say the next phase of Uganda–China military cooperation is likely to be defined less by the acquisition of weapons than by technology transfer, defence industrialisation and the development of Uganda’s indigenous capabilities for the future of its military power.