China’s military announced last week that it is slowing the growth of military spending, but a China affairs specialist dismissed the move announced during the Chinese National People’s Congress meeting as strategic deception.

China state-run media announced that the defense budget would increase by 7.5 percent over last year's budget.

However, Last year's budget was the Yuan equivalent of $70.27 billion while this year's announced budget was $78 billion, which means that the budget is 10.67 percent higher than 2009.

Chinese defense spending figures are falsely deflated and do not include spending on the space program, which is run by the military. Nor do the figures include foreign military purchases. U.S. defense analysts estimate that actually Chinese defense spending is closer to $170 billion.

China’s communist government and military have sought to mask the buildup of forces and insist its arms modernization is not threatening and not directed at any other power.