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SA was considered only because of its past reputation and the fact it was the only other radio quiet area on the planet which was suitable. Australia may not need the investment dollars, but SA needs a lot more than investment dollars to progress beyond the point in their history they've reached at present. Those other countries that have been named are barely more than basket cases, despite the money that's been poured into some of them...and politics has played an enormous factor in those situations.
The Chinese are trying to consolidate their hold on resources that they haven't necessarily got in their own country, or don't have an abundance of, if they do. Australia has always been, and has always allowed itself to be, the whipping boy when it comes to mineral resources and their exploitation. What's being played out here is a strategic game of resource utilisation and consolidation by another bully boy that, if it could, would come and take them anyway at our own expense. Much easier to do this when you have a government in power that is "friendly" (if you get my drift) with the government in China. Our foreign minister is a grand example of this and he's not the only one. The diehards in the Labour party have just replaced (or acknowledge to a greater extent) one set of ideologues with another.
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