I've heard this before, and it just isn't so. It simply isn't true. Look at it this way. If orbit is good then moon is better, right? (according to your high ground analogy anyway) and if moon is better than mars or Jupiter would be better still, right? Wrong. Orbits and other planets are not high ground. they're gravitationally separated entities with their own gravity wells to climb out of and long transit times. A weapon launched from mars would have to be shipped to mars and then sent back - truly silly. Likewise the moon; it took the Apollo what 3 days one way to get to the moon?
Ultimately, the nation that controls space, colonizes the solar system, and builds the ships and infrastructure to do so will have domination and possibly mastery of this planet.
You've been reading too much scinece fiction (The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is science FICTION) and not a physics text Just for fun remember how long it took the Saturn probe to arrive at Saturn and what it had to do to get there (7 YEARS and 5 gravitational assists) This is because there is solar gravity and orbital speed to overcome. The Saturn probe couldn't carry enough fuel to get there on it's own and it surely couldn't carry enough fuel to get there and back . It takes about a year to get to Mars and that is the limit of what spacecraft can do without gravitational assist. I could go on, but either you see my point or you don't
Would you prefer that mastery to belong to China, or the US?
China like the USA has limited resources. Every dollar they spend on a boondoggle like manned space exploration is a dollar (or yen) that does not directly compete with the USA Let them waste their resources on it, and we'll be better spending our resources on things that matter (like energy independence).