[Brett66]

There's a story about them planing for a manned Lunar landing in 2010 by a "top defense official". They do seem to be interested in a human moon program as one of these "officials" spouts off every few months, but then another official will deny it a few days later.

China aims to touch the moon: top national defense official

One thing I wonder about though, there always seems to be grand pronouncements from China about how they want to show the rest of the world how advanced they are. I've never heard any rationale about exploring space simply for pure intellectual reasons (because it is there). Do they only want this to serve nationalistic purposes or do they truly desire to explore space?

[xJones]

Do they only want this to serve nationalistic purposes or do they truly desire to explore space?

Bret, I'll take number one for $200.

Lunar exploration has always been a show piece of national pride, there's nothing on the moon of any practical value to explore. And the Chinese, in particular, need to be practical; this is some weird Chinese ego trip.

[irv]

Do they only want this to serve nationalistic purposes or do they truly desire to explore space?

Neither. They want military domination of space as a path to control of Earth. (There's actually evidence of this, but I'm too lazy to go look it up right now)