If the Chinese establish control of the Lunar water-ice deposits before the USA does then they will control access to the greater solar-system for centuries. The lunar ice has the strategic importance of Gibraltar and the Panama Canal rolled into one, as far as the future use-of-space goes.
Maybe so, but fortunately the Chinese aren't any more optimistic about finding significant quantities of usable water on the moon than we are. They have no problem with the Treaty, of course, since the Treaty has worked well to stop American space development, the only space development even possible, for going on thirty years while the slugs of the world crawl toward the light.