Not to overly defend Chinese space capabilities, but those timescales are a choice, not a constraint. China's manned space program is a prestige program, not a

Not to overly defend Chinese space capabilities, but those timescales are a choice, not a constraint. China's manned space program is a prestige program, not a functional one (though this is typical of manned spaceflight). That means they're being very careful and cautious. If they wanted to put a permanently manned multi-module station in orbit, put people on the moon within a decade, etc, they could. But only at levels of risk and cost they aren't willing to support.