While the US is fighting over the debt, China is planning to go to the moon

[Anomalocaris]

To be honest, Chinese plan does not set a date for manned lunar landing, which seems to me to be a hedge against a later changing of the mind familiar to NASA. Also, Chinese plan appears to be purely prestige-seeking in style, doing absolutely nothing that has not been done by someone else before, even though by going to the moon at all, they demonstrate the possession of capability to break new ground. This tells me the grandiloquent goal of furthering human space exploration is the last thing on chinese minds. They want only the maximum prestige for the minimum risk and minimum cost, without a single extra dime spent on pursuing genuine exploration.

I don't think the Chinese will be the first to send a man to mars. It does not fit their style. They want to use the paths others have hewn for the minimum cost. They are not interested in hewing a path to where non have gone before.