On the contrary, this is a small step towards putting the moon surface under US control. It is pretty clear, at least in my opinion, that the end goal is to disregard the entire "common heritage of humanity" narative. That was all fine and dandy when we all knew the moon was too remote to do anything about it. Now that technology allows to at least entertain the idea of exploiting the moon as a ressource, it is time for empires to drip their toes to test the waters…

I cannnot believe that those types of claim and the advance of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program is entirely a coincidence.

Of course, the situation will slowing evolve for decades before anything concrete comes out of it. And I do think the "common heritage" claim, even if doomed to fail eventually, tend to slow down the conquest by national powers. The situation in Antarctica is illuminating in this regard.