The USA has for a long a time now been building up an illusion of their own devising that they are are the super-advanced state that nobody can ever hope to reach their level. China has shown that in a few decades that whatever USA knows, they can learn and reach in a very short space of time. It just takes a lot of money, organization and manpower.
USA, and Russia to a lesser extent, got a massive jump up the tech ladder when they made the coup of acquiring the best Nazi scientists, after WW2. Both countries used them to their own advantage and they both remain technological forces today. However, China, whether by hook or crook, have acquired much of USA's and Russia's technology over the last few decades and now have the money and infrastructure to push on from where the USA and Russia have stagnated in recent times, because of domestic and economic restraints.
Unlike USA and Russia, China don't do vanity missions to claim prestigious titles of first this or that. They have a pragmatic objective for spending the vast amounts of money to get to the moon. Helium-3 and mineral riches of the moon are the objectives.