China's Decreased Defense Spending

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/world/asia/05china.html?ref=asia
This article is mainly concerned with the decreased increase of China’s military spending this year. It also offers some possible reasons to account for this decrease.
The first reason offered in the article is that China does not have enough money to spend on military for it has various things to do this year, such as the economic stimulus plan. Another reason it offers is that that China wants to use the reduced the growth of its publicly acknowledged defense spending to help allay international concerns about its rising power. I think that it is possible that China wants to use its decreased defense spending to ally international concerns, but it is hard for China to reach the goal. According to Mearsheimer, the country’s power can be evaluated by its population, territory, and economy. China, with its fastest economic growth in the world, has the largest population. From a realist prospective, it is not that hard for China to transfer its economic power to military power. Washington cannot imagine a China with the same GDP per person as HongKong. With a good prospect of becoming a regional hegemony, it is hard for China to develop its economy without the notice of the developed countries today. From a liberal prospective, it is impossible for China to reach its goal unless it becomes a liberal democracy recognized by the U.S.and other western countries. For trust exist among those liberal democracies. But with a different political tradition and a history of more than 3000 years, China has to choose its own path. It is almost impossible for China to become a US-recognized liberal democracy.