When so many argue that only private companies can make us dream, the problem is : private companies don't want to make us dream, they first want to make money. And as long as short term profit is the rule, there's no hope for great space adventures unless there's a political commitment.

Exercise for the student: go back over the past several hundred years or so and tally up what percentage of the great voyages of exploration and other endeavors to open the frontier were motivated by profit. Space will be settled when there is a good profitable reason to go out there and do so.

China has a space vision, because it doesn't care about short term investment. The Soviet Union had a vision as well and in the 60's the US had a vision and NASA was created to centralize the forces needed for the Moon goal, which wasn't at all something private companies would have dared to do.

And what are they doing now? Are we on the Moon? Mars? Is Russia? I wouldn't read that much into one Chinese space flight. Remember Buran.

The private sector creates cities and growth. Governments create monuments. The Apollo program is a monument. A wonderful one, but as lifeless as the pyramids.

Sorry, but I'm not interested in colonies (because in colonies, we too often find the same problems as those we tried to escape from).

Not always. Some colonies grew beyond their origins, and become more than colonies. I live in one.