My recollection of Sun Tzu's thesis is that subordination of the Emperor's soldiers was the underlying premise to success. He demonstrated this by having court ladies do dismounted drill. They laughed and made light of the exercise. He then executed one of the ladies. The rest then followed orders.
Fear is the underlying principle in maintaining the Emperor's power. So it goes with the Communists. This is at odds when contrasted to Machiavelli's "Art of War" His method of selecting soldiers was to find tough country men such as farmers accustomed to hard work. He studied and gave examples of successful Roman military strategies. He wrote a rational treatise, based on reason not fear.
The Chinese managed to maintain local control over tribes and people who really didn't care to be free of the Chinese. But, the Mongols cleaned their clocks but good. When China decided to teach Vietnam a lesson and bloody their nose in 1979, it cost them dearly with a lot of casualties. They withdrew in a few months.
China's success on the world market has more to do with Western belief in Free Trade. It's got nothing to do with Sun Tzu. Whether or not free trade will work as theoretically posited, wealth for everyone remains to be seen. The other axiom that democracies don't go to war with each other is not likely to be tested to the extreme as much of the world is under control of thugs and elitists of one kind or another. There really is no democracy. Coming from Massachusetts where the majority would never permit homosexual marriage, the elitists have taken control of the state machinery and dictated it to be. Alas, democracy does not even exist in the United States.
Excellent post. Although I consider China a major threat, it gets tiresome to see so many on FR treating them as some sort of supermen. They're just another bunch of commies, and we'll clean their clocks too if they don't do it to themselves first.