China has a long history of innovation and a tradition of promoting talent. China turned itself around by focusing on basics first and has the basis for sustainable growth unlike Gorbochov's efforts. As Lee points out they are very capitalistic and innovative. Comparisons to the Soviet Union are way off base. You certainly can not point to pure capitalism and democracy as prerequisites for space exploration as it has gotten us very little in 20 years. I'm not saying their sorry form of government is a plus over all or even for space exploration, but I think its safe to say their program has more stability than a single US election cycle.

The Soviet Union never acheived the type of Growth China has had in recent history on a sustained basis. China also has an economy 60% as big as ours compared to about 12% for Russia. It takes a far smaller share of their total pie to sustain a space program.

I had assumed their program was some simple propaganda ploy that was basically a sham, but I think they may actually be doing what we did with Apollo in aiming mainly to demonstrate technological superiority. If they are out to prove superiority then they will need a goal beyond what the US has accomplished.

China is the world power most likely to challenge the US in the future economically and technologically. Hopefully we will be past military challenges by then.

Regards,
Mark