China is working with the UN to host a workshop in manned space flight at the end October, energizing it's own space program when NASA is selling off bits of itself to compete with commercial enterprises like Space X. China has been pouring money and resources into space exploration, and according to some has leapfrogged it's way to the same point that the US was when the Gemini Program was ended.
Political competition spurred the Gemini and Apollo programs, and space shuttle development, but things have moved on since then. The competition between the US and the USSR has been replaced by competition from private companies, Space X is already delivering payloads, and two big players - Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation are hoping to take astronauts to the ISS up to the end of it's service.
The Chinese space program might do much for flag waving Chinese at home, and further legitimize the CCP in China, international reaction to the plans has been somewhat lukewarm. They well might be in the space race at long, long last, but with American astronauts using Russian spacecraft to get into orbit, China might well be winning it's space race, but they haven't really looked around at the competition for a good long while.
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