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China's liquid rocket can put men on the moon in just a few years, seems pretty good to me.
But yes China does lags in cadence, not unlike how US laged Soviets in cadence when they were landing on the moon, history does like to rhyme doesn't it.
Oh and China also lags in massive zero-payload suborbital vehicles whose mission is to not blow up.
Yeah this isn't it. Liquid fueled rocket engines and launch, alongside semiconductors and jet turbines are one of the few remaining industrial areas that China lags the West in. It's dumb to deny this. SpaceX's Starship crashes during its development process are to be expected.
I get China implicitly consider not leading in every measurable metric as lagging, while the west like to claim leadership from just a single metric even if it fails on everything else, but let's not pretend it won't be rather silly to claim liquid rocket leadership while Chinese astronauts walk on the moon (which won't be unlike Soviet claim of engine leadership with NK-33 or RD-270 in the 60s and 70s)
It's 2025, we live in a world where Chinese scramjet engines are in mass production and there are more Chinese commercial rocket makers of every type than you can count. The world has a long list of industries that the west didn't realize they were behind until it was already over, you just listed a few remaining ones where the west still can pretend it's not.
Remarkable. A super heavy lift launcher that is the most powerful ever built in human history, and it's reusable too! I have to say, it stands in stark contrast to the attempted launch this month of Zhuque-2E, a regular expendable rocket that blew up.
Meanwhile, Starlink has 7,600 satellites in orbit. Its nearest Chinese competitor, Guowang, recently had its boosters puffed full of pride, bragging that it launched "38 satellites in 22 days" in August. That's apparently a huge increase in the launch rate from before. However, I did the calculations, and even if it kept up that launch cadence indefinitely, at that rate, it would take 4,400 days or 12 years to reach 7,600 satellites, let alone the 13,000 they have planned. The other Chinese competitor, Qianfan, has not launched since March. I say that not to embarass anyone but just to illustrate how far ahead SpaceX is ahead of everyone.
I don't understand the point you are making, sending a man to the moon does not require the most advanced launch vehicle or the most efficient one. It just needs one that gets the job done with maximum achievable safety which in this case means reusing quite alot of technology from LM-5. While it is impressive, it absolutely does not mean China leads or even is at parity with the US on launch vehicle technology. China still has zero reusable launch vehicle and does not have any equivalent engine to the Raptor. Also let's not forget the US sent people to the moon last century already.
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That has nothing to do with the fundamental rocket engine technology and has to do with program management.
If you look over the last several years you will notice that most of Chinese launches are still handled by LM-2, 3 and 4 rockets.
That's funny because Soviet Union was test firing 600 ton FFSC RD-270 at the exact same time Apollo 11 launched on gas generator F-1s. And if you look over the last several years you'll notice almost all US launches were handled by gas generator Merlin engines.
I get Americans really need some Ws right now, but let's not pretend there's anything space that's not part of a program or having only one part of the program actually gets you anywhere.
A rocket that can gets the job done is infinitely more impressive than a rocket that can't, do you understand that part?
That again mostly comes down to good project management. LM-10 is not technologically advanced as it was specifically meant to be a fast and safe option. Also, as LM-10 has yet to flown I think you are getting a bit ahead don't you think? What are you even trying to agrue, that somehow Chinese launch vehicles are more advanced technologically? That just ain't true.