For the Chinese there is no difference between war and diplomacy. Mao Tse-Tung said that war was diplomacy with bloodshed and diplomacy was war without bloodshed. Samuel B. Griffith said that SunTzu believed that war was to preceded by measures designed to make it easy to win. The master conqueror frustrated enemy plans and broke his alliances. He created cleavages between sovereign and minister, superiors and inferiors, commanders and subordinates. His spies and agents were active everywhere, gathering information, sowing dissension, and nurturing subversion. Thus without battle his army is conquered, his cities taken, and his state overthrown.
With the active cooperation of so many in government, using the Clinton gift of missile technology as a example, there is so little effort required to achieve success.