> One was coloniser and another one was a colony

This is an America-centric geopolitical model with zero predictive power.

China annexed Tibet in 1951 [1]. Xinjiang has been fighting colonization from the Qings, Soviets, Nationalists and PRC for over a century.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Tibet_by_China

Indeed, the 13 colonies that formed the United States in 1776 were a colony of Great Britain up to that point, but what does that have to do with the moon landing? In the 1960s, neither country was a colony of any other country.

But regardless, I will congratulate China wholeheartedly on its 7th place, if and when that happens.

Based