Adam, you are very naive. Any armed encounter in space would be interpreted as a prelude to a nuclear first strike. Terrestrial nuclear war would be certain.
The first, and most important step toward utilizing space or other planets well on a large scale, is to successfully manage our affairs on Earth well. We are not doing that. There is no economic incentive to have a human population somewhere other than Earth. It would be enormously costly. Not until a government has extaordinary economic ease will anything like this occur. Spending money on it now would not just be wasted, it would actually be counterproductive, and delay its eventuality.
The manned Chinese space program is for purely propaganda purposes, just like the American and Russian programs. There is really nothing useful for people to do up there at present. The success of the Chinese communist government, never as ideologically pure as other communist governments, is based on nationalism. They are a reaction to the depradations of the western powers and Japan committed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Foreign domination was a shameful blow to a people who had (often justly) considered themselves the pinnacle of civilization. This mission is just to demonstrate that China is at the forefront of nations.
Njorl
Thus, if they're our best choice for now,