The west (well really just the Americans, Europe prefers to hit the "ignore" button) needs this sort of competition to drive them forward. The moon in 69 was just suppose to have been just an intermediate step in the grand scheme of things - Humankind was to had already set foot on mars by the early 80s, and a 50 person mars base by 1990 - under Von Braun's original grand plan.
Von Braun Mars Expedition - 1969
China just woke everyone up from being fat and lazy for the last 40 years. And that deserves kudos.