Why would they send people in space without a proper space station? China is banned from using the ISS, no nation has a spacehab-alike capability for long-term orbital missions without a space station right now, and China's first station could not be resupplied, heavily restricting its life span (similar to Spacelab and early Salyut stations). Doing scientific missions in a cramped capsule is just pointless (and has been for decades now).
