China's Shenzhou 13 crew Zhai Zhigang , Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu docked to the Tianhe core module of China's new Tiangong space station on October 16, 2021.

For example, CMSA did not announce in advance when the docking with the space station would occur, only that Shenzhou 13 would follow "a fast rendezvous."

Just look at the "press conference" hosted on CGTN a day or two ago. Did you notice that the main conference speaker was reading his responses to questions? Let's follow through what this means. The questions had to be submitted in advance, so there would be nothing off script. Take a look at who "asked" the first question. It was a military media source. Various of the other "questioners" were military media sources.

While undoubtedly Shenzhou 13 will entail some real science, it is unquestionably a propaganda endeavor too, and the people who create the propaganda allow out into public view, barring true disaster, only what they want, and what they want is to show China's "greatness" in space.

I would love to see more Chinese info about Shenzhou 13 and what they are doing, but if it turns out to be anything like Shenzhou 12 it will be relatively minimal bits of information and pictures.

With regards to China's space development, while China certainly is a great space faring nation, let's not forget, that is a very short list; three countries have launched humans to space. On the other hand, I'd take the probe/robotic capabilities of ESA or Japan any day over the Chinese capabilities.

For the past few years China has been on an IP collection drive, gathering up as much data as they can and their space infrastructure and hardware has lineage back to foreign sources. It is basic scientific and engineering practice to use existing technology where possible to and iterate rather than re-invent the wheel each time we try to build something new, but people tend not get so excited when somebody else gets the same result using the same technology.

For this reason, I disagree that China launching a space station is more newsworthy than space tourism or any other advancement is spaceflight capability. It is significant for China, who are trying to sell their brand on the world stage, but if China had flown a celebrity to space, that would make headlines and gained more attention.

Commercial operators not only have to compete against each other, they have to market their brand in a commercial arena. Using celebrity to represent is a classic branding tool which in the case of Shatner was a powerful marketing move. The next step will be those who question Shatner pledging allegiance to one side over another and the throng of people that will accuse Shatner of agreeing with all of Blue Origin's management and environmental decisions, when the guy may just have wanted to go to space.

Ye Guangfu was part of ESA’s underground training course CAVES in 2016. From NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold (via Twitter):

My fellow explorer and friend Ye Guangfu has arrived to the Tiangong Space Station for a 6 month stay. Welcome to space Guangfu!

Pictured: Arnold, Pedro Duque, Ye, Sergei Korsakov, Jessica Meir and Aki Hoshide.

Here is Ye's video log from day three of the CAVES training:

China's Shenzhou 13 crew, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, are on their way back to Earth after a national record six-month-long mission in orbit aboard the Chinese space station.