Sun Tzu and the Art of Trade

Around 2,500 years ago, Chinese general and strategist Sun Tzu wrote his masterpiece, the Art of War.  This treatise is mandatory reading for Chinese officials.  Australian officials and commentators should also read it because, as the opening paragraphs state, “[T]he art of war is of vital importance to the State.  It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.  Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”   

Relations between Australia and China are at all-time lows.  Following a number of recent trade injunctions, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman last week tweeted a faked image of an Australian soldier with a knife to the throat of an Afghan child.  Three…