Maybe if the Chinese announce they're heading for the Moon it would trigger another space race. After the Russians launched the Sputnik in 1957, it was less than a decade from the time JFK announced the moon as a target that man actually landed there.
"...I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...
"...But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon -- if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there."