China's Space Program: A waste?

An interesting article was posted on IO9.Com noting a Wall Street Journal columnist who asked if China's human missions were a waste of time and resources compared to developing technology for unmanned projects, etc. The WSJ doesn't really take into account really long-range thinking and development, in my opinion. But I also have a bias given my enthusiasm for a Lao space program.

The image here is from REUTERS/ Xinhua/Ren Junchuan: