Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Chinese space program began in 1955 when rocketry scientist Qian Xuesen returned to China from the United States. The Fifth Research Academy under the Ministry of National Defense was established on the 8th of October 1956 with fewer than 200 staff members recruited by Qian.
A Long March 3B rocket carrying Intelsat 708 crashed on the 15th of February 1996 killing six people and injuring 57 others. Another failure occurred on August 18 when ChinaSat 7 suffered a third-stage re-ignition malfunction leading to canceled orders and refusal of insurance from international clients.
Yang Liwei became the first Chinese person in space aboard Shenzhou-5 on the 15th of October 2003. After more than 21 hours and 14 orbits around Earth, the spacecraft landed safely in Inner Mongolia marking a complete success celebrated worldwide.
China achieved its first soft landing on an extraterrestrial body on the 2nd of December 2013 when Chang'e-3 touched down in the Sinus Iridum region. The Yutu rover deployed onto the surface the following day starting surveys achieving the landing and roving phase goals.
Future plans include placing astronauts on the Moon by 2030 utilizing Long March 10 carrier rocket new generation crew spacecraft lunar lander EVA spacesuit and rover equipment currently under development. Additional missions involve Tianwen-3 returning samples from Mars and Tianwen-4 exploring the Jupiter system including Callisto attaching Uranus flyby probe to the mission.