Tom Brosz is fending off some of them over at Habitable Zone.

Is that the point to be learned? That the Chinese understand they missed the boat in the 15th century regarding colonialism, but will make up for it many times over in the next.

I would expect new governments to be formed outside the bounds of earth, so as long as there is some competition I wouldn't care who does the exploring.

Chinese space exploration has nothing to do with historical matters; it is purely a way of supporting nationalistic sentiment within China. Funny, that sounds a lot like America's space program in the 60's...