Usually Media and think tanks love to claim that China inflated their GDP sometimes using esoteric metrics like light intensity (lol).
But when it's about defense budget, ackshually China deflated them
Then there is the value of value, ie:currency shenanigans and comodities markets, which the "west" loves but hate that China has its own currency standards, and that China happily trades in any number of international currencies.
Does U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan get paid or boosted by military lobbyists? Does he or his family own any military stocks or companies?