Don't know if you saw the story online that was done by CBSN on China's investment in Greenland.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark, the people of Greenland want to independence from Denmark.
But they need millions, if not billions of dollars in infrastructure to do so. Guess who or should I say which country would be willing to do that for mineral, fishing rights and the ability to place research facilities and satellite earth stations in Greenland.
I think Chile has a similar arrangement and people don't dare get near the Chinese "ground stations".