A little friendly military-to-military chest-beating, perhaps? Maybe, but one thing is clear: America's long-standing dominance of the final frontier is no longer a given.
It never really was - Russia has been there for a long time, and there are several other countries that have managed to put objects into orbit for years now. To assume that US will always be (or was always) on top is to demonstrate profound ignorance. But then again, the national education budget has been getting reduced over the years to ensure that our country does not have the brain-power to compete (or figure out how incompetent our government can be, or is).
The Chinese, unlike this country, have a profound interest in planning for the long term, which is completely unlike the short-attention-span mindset of this (and to be fair previous) administrations. The difference is that the Chinese have incredibly sharp leadership combined with very long terms in power. The lack of cohesive strategy and a rational defense acquisition system damages our ability to buy and implement the right systems.
However, shirking treaties that ideally make sense and are in the national interest is not one of the hallmarks of the incumbant administration (nor the Chinese), even when it is to our advantage.
