Communist China is shooting for the moon. When America’s top astronaut warned that we must counter this threat, he was shot down, but we ignore his warning at our peril.

The administrator of NASA, Clarence William Nelson, a former Space Shuttle specialist and Democratic senator from Florida, put the looming space war in stark terms.

“We must be very concerned,” he told the German newspaper Bild, “that China is landing on the moon and saying: ‘It’s ours now and you stay out.’”

Mr. Nelson also pointed out, as Space.com reported, that NASA plans to launch just a single vehicle to search for ice on the moon next year, whereas Communist China plans to send three “big” landers.

He went on to warn of Beijing’s notorious theft of technology and to describe their space station’s mission as “learning how to destroy other people’s satellites.”

While who occupies the moon may not seem to matter for those of us clinging to this third rock from the sun, you don’t need a telescope to see how America depends on satellites for everything from cell phones and GPS to guiding missiles and forecasting weather to, to bring it back, telescopes themselves.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian dismissed Mr. Nelson’s comments, saying, “This is not the first time for the NASA chief to lie through his teeth and slander China.” A non-denial denial. 

The Global Times, a Communist Chinese mouthpiece, further charged Mr. Nelson with expressing a “colonial mentality,” citing international treaties that declare the lunar surface free to all.

The Science Times was one of many outlets that pointed to international law as protection against a Red Moon, specifically 1967’s Outer Space Treaty, which states that no nation is “legally allowed to take over the moon.”

That’s slim comfort, since in space, no one can hear your lawyers scream. Just how is America or the other 132 nations who ratified the treaty to enforce these star statutes?

Besides, Communist China cares no more for treaties than their fascist antecedents. Consider the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that marks territorial waters as 12 nautical miles off their coast.

This has always excluded the Taiwan Strait — until last month, when the Foreign Ministry of earth’s most populous nation declared the strait to be “China’s internal waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone and exclusive economic zone in that order.”

In the South China Sea, also international waters, the People’s Liberation Army Navy has built three artificial islands and hardened them into military bases.

And the moon is a lot farther away than Asia. Defending open navigation won’t be as easy as sailing the American Navy through Taiwan Strait in a show of force for Free China.

If this all sounds like the plot of a James Bond novel, remember that Ian Fleming was a World War II intelligence officer with MI6, the United Kingdom’s Secret Intelligence Service.

When he wrote “Moonraker,” Fleming recognized the threat of letting a foe militarize the planet’s lone natural satellite.

That American news outlets echoed the Communist Party line about relying on treaties prompted Mr. Nelson to expand on his warning in a statement to Fox News.

“The Chinese space exploration program is run by their military,” he said. “This is different from NASA, which has always had a peaceful and open civilian space program.”

He described Communist China as “a very aggressive competitor” in the final frontier, adding, “They’re going to be landing humans on the moon.”

He said that “should tell us something about our need to get off our duff and get our Human Landing System program going vigorously.”

Communist China has made clear its territorial ambitions and shown a willingness to ignore treaties, law, and human rights whenever it sees fit.

Relying on pieces of paper to keep them in check is short-sighted, and if America fails to act, we may look back upon those stacks of treaties as Munichs of the Moon — and there will be no 007 to save us.