"China's aspirations in space have nothing to do with merely proving themselves, or showing up India or the West or anyone else. What most western observers fail to understand is that China is not some young, backwater, upstart of a country. Rather, they are the world's oldest and historically most powerful civilization, and they know it. "China" means "all under heaven," and if an old emperor once ignored that madate and burned Wen Ho's fleet, they've now learned from that mistake, and won't repeat it again. China's current government may operate in terms of 5-year plans, but China's actual civilization can think in much longer terms: where do we want to be 100 years from now? Where do we want to be 1,000 years from now? 1,000 years is not such a long time, if you're talking about the collective subconscious of China. And if you're thinking or dreaming on those kind of timescales, the human expansion into space is simply a no-brainer."

I would agree that China may *feel* it could/should look at longer time scales. The people in Chinese leadership have a different attitude, than compared to the "West" in general.
But I should also point of the obvious, people are comprised of culture and culture isn't limited to some national border- and cultural values can rapidly change.
I would say that it appears that China is being rational towards Space, and we are being irrational towards Space.
I believe that "going into Space" will be something that involves all nations on Earth- though this doesn't mean I favor some "international effort"- meaning some interntional bureacratic institutions organizing some program- though I favor nations working together (aligning space policy and establishing laws which will assist efforts from all nations who want to work towards this future.)

"India, in contrast, has no cohesive or linear history to draw upon. Prior to the unification imposed by the British, India consisted of over 500 principalities in a more or less constant state of strife. Now India is an empire, but they haven't quite realized it. The disparate ties of religion, caste, tribe, village, region, language, et cetera are far more important to the average Indian than the common tie of being part of one nation. What national conscious does exist is very young -- and eager, yes, but focused on short timeframes and immediate practicalities."

But the question is will this "focused on short timeframes and immediate practicalities" cause it to behave like America or even the Soviets? And also even if it did behave as America, it's starting at a different time could result in different results. In other words it can learn from our mistakes and not repeat them. Remember that India had close relationship to old Soviet Union so they would be willing to look at Soyuz and compare this to the Shuttle. And the Moon is a difference place; there could water at the poles. Another point is the sub-orbital travel- India could be in a favorable geography in this regards.