You just made a WRONG ANALOGY you probably didn't know.

Surveyor was a series of flyby + orbiting + landing missions.

Ranger was a series of flyby + orbiting + crashing missions.

None of them brought sample back home. The first pile of lunar sample was brought by Apollo 11 astronauts. Chang'e 1, 2, 3 (2007, 2010, 2013) had probably done much more than the Surveyors and Rangers. After all, they are late-comers.

Chang'e 5 was a lunar sample return mission in 2020. It was a combo of 4 modules, a lander, an ascender, an orbiter and a returner. It worked like this:

1. After reaching the lunar orbit, the lander+ascender seperated from the combo and landed on the surface.
2. After collection the samples were carried by the ascender, which lifted off from the lander and docked with the orbiter+returner.
3. The ascender transferred the samples to the returner in orbit and left.
4. Then the orbiter+returner accelerated and returned.
5. The returner seperated from the orbiter and landed on earth.
6. The orbiter passed Sun-Earth L1 Lagrange point and then entered the lunar DRO for VLBI tests. It is still working in orbit now.

Step 1-5 was a robotic miniature of the sequence of Apollo 11 mission. It was surely not an equivalent, but enough as an experiment to develop the pattern of crewed missions and further lunar mining projects.

The information above are all in ENGLISH, as accessible as a few clicks on Wikipedia.

As currently disclosed, the 2030 lunar crewed mission won't need some behemoth like Saturn V, but two or more CZ5DY launches to dock a crewed ship, a lander and some boosters together in LEO. Then the combo will bring astronauts to the moon and return like Chang'e 5. There are still 8 years to get this plan done. And this is just part of the moon base project.

What a mis-read. There is NO HATE, just frustration.

1. In my past comments in this sub, I never said any word like "China (esp. in space industry) is perfect". They are just a fast but decent group of people catching up.
2. I mentioned CCTV regardless of its propaganda, just to point out that the manned lunar program and moon base plan have been MADE PUBLIC FOR YEARS. And they have been hot topics in the science and tech circle as more details are disclosed. It is not anything "secret" like redditors always brag about. And anyone can find and follow TONS of Chinese sources about what the Chinese did and are going to do, from their gov, industry, academic institutions, space and tech enthusiasts and even social media, and check them out, IF ANYONE READS CHINESE. There is no need to hide or fake such huge space programs now. The more you read, the deeper you know, and the harder it is to fake. It is the lazy, arrogant and lying western media that make everyone blind from what is really happening in other countries. Political lens makes people stupid.
3. It is true that in the coming decade, for China or other space power, getting human to stay on the moon for half a month is an enormously difficult goal. I didn't expect beyond that. After all, it is planned to be "short-term" or "mid-term" mission at best by 2035, 12 YEARS LATER FROM NOW. As planned their core base in the lunar south pole will come earlier than the manned landing (roughly 2030). It is way more about a series of plans than a cold-war style one-time show-off. Today's Chinese are not Soviet Russians, show-offs cannot please or feed these realistic people. 2030 is not so far away, we will see.
4. So far China had never lost (or even significantly injured) any astronaut in her space programs. For the public this has become a norm. Space is always highly dangerous, but gov and the space industry has to manage risks, either high up to the space or down to the earth. I don't know where you could get an impression that China or any major space power could (or even need to) risk any astronaut's life just to ram for a cold-war style trophy.

CZ5DY (the currently developing variant of Long March 5 rocket for moon landing) is planned to be launched by 2027. The current public plan is one CZ5DY to send stuff into orbit, then another one to send astronauts.

The Chang'e 5 lunar sample return mission in 2020 went in a similar sequence as an Apollo mission. The coming Chang'e 7 and 8 missions are to build a core base in the lunar south pole, which by 2035 will be developed into a multi-module base to support mid-term manned missions.

All of these have been made public on CCTV news many times for years, not some "secret plans by the Party" as some redditors frequently painted. After all, few of them really reads news in Chinese.

It is true that China has a lot to work to get their lunar mission done, but it is far and far from "infancy" and "propaganda". For the growing nationals in the coming decade, copying Gemini and Apollo program is far from pleasing enough. It has already been a consensus among the Chinese public to set up a long-term base on the moon, do actual research by hand, better mine something valueable and bring them back to earth.

It is not something about "to try with ambitions", but something about "to get the plan done, build a new home and find something new".

One major by-product would be a stretching industry chain that brings millions of high-paid professional jobs to a continent of billion. This is at least much better than the currently unproductive financial games.

The ultimate cure for modern feudalism is another industrial revolution with exponential growth.