That's part of it too, but CNSA really does play its cards much closer to its chest than NASA. It's more in line with the Soviet approach of sharing the minimum information necessary to support a narrative. For example, try to find video of any Long March rocket failure, and literally the only one released is from the 90s and was only released a few years ago.
I read mandarin and I use WeChat. It's still less transparent. There are many self-congratulatory press releases without enough technical information. The Chinese haven't realized yet that transparency here is a form of soft power.