I agree that the analogy's not 100%. I would observe, though, that lack of a significant common border didn't stop the US and USSR from being mortal enemies for decades, yet we've managed to, if not quite bury the hatchet, at least learn to get along. I probably helped that Russia had an essentially Western culture, beneat the surface of the USSR's political system, which has helped us find common ground. China's culture is more alien to both America and Russian, and in the end it may be the cultural differences that prove the biggest challenge.

Hope they can hold it together. Would love to see a lot of robots doing science, and person or two for the collective ego.

Yep. It's a curious realm for the American space enthusiast, national pride in conflict with the higher vision of a spacefaring civilization. The Apollo 11 plaque read "We came in peace for all mankind", and in that spirit it's great whichever segment of mankind takes the initiative; we'll feel part of even a Chinese Moon mission. It galls that America is so lacking of ambition in space these days, but comforting that somebody still carries the fire.

I'm not confident that America today would respond to an international challenge in space as constructively as we did back in the 60s. Government geopolitical policy today is fundamentally defensive, aggressively so in the doctrine of preemptive war. For the moment our government seems to be ignoring the Chinese space program (our own announced initiatives don't seem competitive so much as parallel and unrelated), and that may be for the best. I'd hate to imagine what might happen if our policymakers got it into their heads that China was gaining a strategic advantage in space. A perceived challenge in space these days could lead to war instead of constructive competition.