The people at street level, however, are not the ones responsible for pushing through a Chinese moon base. That's left the the Party Hacks, and as such won't happen any time soon.
Same deal if we suppose that the party suddenly crumbles. If China miraculously avoids civil war, the entreprenurial spirit of the Chinese is unlikely to spend its time looking for moon bases and the like, which offer no prospects of even medium-term returns.
This is a creature of the Politburo, and it dies with the Politburo.