Counter Islam and gain good will with locals for the cost of a few building supplies. A cheap, double header for the Chinese.
This has nothing to do with countering Islam, it is simple economics.
For example, my Church had a similar project. We tried to get an American contractor to do the job and his quotation almost gave us heart attack. We were advised to try the Chinese and the Chinese invited the Senior Pastor to check things out. The Chinese quotation was more than a million dollars less and they did a very good job.
(My Pastor was really impressed when he went to China).