The Chinese are copying NASA's excessively cautious approach for now.
That's my theory as to why so few manned missions from the Chinese so far.

That will all change as the Chinese gains more confidence and successes [hopefully] in the next 5 years.

But the real issue is...is: China needs big big bigger boosters.
The biggest one in the serious planning stage so far is a "beefed up" Long March CZ-5.
It will be capable of orbiting 25 metric tons in LEO, or send up to 11 metric tons to the moon
with a LH2/LOX fueled upper-stage.
Not bad, considering their manned spacecraft weigh in at about 8 metric tons.
The first launch for the CZ-5 is [according to the Chinese] expected to occur on their
"Olympic Year" [2008].
Great..if they're only planning to put two taikonauts into lunar orbit, but if
they want to land one of those taikonauts on the moon, the Chinese will need bigger boosters still.
I think they're upto the challenge.