I worked with a Chinese exchange student (physics, graduate level) last term. We discussed the Chinese space program. He said the primary goal of the Chinese government is to keep the Chinese government in power. To do so, it must appear to the Chinese people to be on course to outdo the Western world. To keep the average Chinese peasant -- who works in a sweatshop or on a farm for starvation wages -- from revolting over money spent on space-based military systems, the government puts on its nationalistic facade. It's called propaganda, folks.
FWIW, my Chinese acquaintance says China isn't even close to the ability to send people to the moon, much less establish a base there within a decade.
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FWIW, my Chinese acquaintance says China isn't even close to the ability to send people to the moon, much less establish a base there within a decade.