Commentary China seems to spend less on military spending, compared to the United States. But Beijing manipulates the numbers to make China appear more peaceful, and its behavior suggests that Washington should still be concerned. The Heritage Foundation held an online forum last week discussing the budget of the Chinese regime. This is important because military budgets are crucial pieces of information for domestic audiences—such as how much they are spending on the military, compared to “investment” in social programs and economic development. It is even more important for foreign audiences, as the defense budget is a benchmark that is used by other countries to assess their own spending and readiness. But communist China uses several methods to cook the books, which can skew proper analysis. It’s incredibly popular in some analytical circles to dismiss possible Chinese threats based on finances alone. These circles are usually from the virulent anti-war …