[AnotherUnixGeek]

no-one should be surprised if China tossed the treaty in the trash, declared Mars their planet, and enforced it with mechanical drones.

On a planet-wide basis? Yeah, China doesn't have that capacity. Neither does any other nation, including us. Mars will be a free-for-all for quite some time, unless of course we allow the bureaucrats to do to us what other nations can't.

[cgbg]

All China needs to do is develop very basic Von Neumann machines—and it is game over:

https://www.cigarpage.com/class-34-hab-blend-no-30.html

While the debunkers of the concept tend to discuss highly complex and huge machines, it would be much easier to develop a single-purpose, small, relatively simple self-replicating machine that could generate drones “controlling” a place like Mars.