“Everyone who starts a war does so under the banner of a ‘just cause.’ No one will ever proclaim that they are leading a war for an
‘unjust cause.’” The actual interests for which a war is engaged are not made public as a rule, although they are the pivot around which everything turns. They are concealed by the emphasis placed on the
“just cause.” “Thus the Bush administration in America at the start of the twenty-first century has led a war against Afghanistan, and this has been under the banner of the ‘war against terror.’ This has been the ‘just cause,’ and for that reason it quickly received the support of many countries.” In fact, it was, and still is, fundamentally about the national interests of America. “Very many facts testify that all military undertakings of America are closely linked with the interests of large American companies. Under the excuse of the ‘war against terror,’ America has penetrated into Afghanistan, where it has worked for the establishment of a regime friendly to America. Its end objectives are access to energy resources and the protection of its geostrategic interests. As Master Sun said,
‘In war one acts for the sake of an advantage.’16This short profound sentence helps us to look past the haloes with which warmongers surround themselves, and so to identify their true faces. America may be good at ‘deceiving the heaven to cross the sea.’
However, thanks to the saying of Master Sun, it is easy to see past this delusion” (Yu 2003, pp. 9–10).
Stratagem 3:
Killing with a borrowed knife This stratagem includes:
1. cutting out the opponent by means of the hands of others.
Straw-man stratagem; proxy stratagem.
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2. damaging someone in an indirect manner, without drawing attention to oneself.
Alibi stratagem; mastermind-behind-the-scenes stratagem.
Here we are talking primarily about any application of a stratagem in which the real actor remains unrecognized. Under certain circumstances, this stratagem can also be used under the full public gaze. In a broad sense, the stratagem involves the achievement of an objective that is supported by the ingenious use of a third party or borrowed resources (Yu 1993, p. 26; Yao, p. 26). In these circumstances, it is no longer a concealment stratagem, but rather an exploitation stratagem. Seen in this way, the stratagem has a hybrid nature.
From the Chinese point of view, there is nothing wrong in using internal conflict—in the case of a single business opponent—or conflicts between a number of competing Western opponents, as the
“knife” for “killing off ” unfavorable conditions (Yu 2003, p. 19).
Stratagem radius
Enthusiastically applauded by all children, the courageous little tailor in Grimm’s Fairy Tales kills the two giants lying under a tree. He does this by throwing stones from the tree alternately at the two giants while they are sleeping. Eventually, they start fighting and kill each other, because each believes that the other had hit him while he was sleeping.
In its “war against terror” and al-Qaida in Afghanistan, “America has hired Afghans to fight against Afghans, and so has been able to keep its own losses relatively small” (Yu 2003, p. 18).
In negotiations, Chinese managers can invite a number of competing firms at the same time, if possible also in the same building (Fang, pp. 263–4), and thereby can threaten to conclude the deal with the competitor with whom they are negotiating in a nearby room. Westerners who are blind to devices of this kind feel that this
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is “very uncivil” (HBR, October 2003, p. 89). However, this has nothing to do with any ignorance of the rules of politeness. On the contrary, the Chinese here are using the threatening references to the competitor as the “knife” that they, quite impassively and by no means secretly, are putting to the throat of their opposite number in the negotiations. The latter can mitigate this stratagem by asking precise questions regarding the name of the competitor, their product, their terms for delivery and guarantees, and so on. Larger business deals always have to be approved by some kind of higher authority. Chinese negotiation leaders can use this approval that still has to be sought as a “knife,” in order to extract concessions from the opposing party. If the opposing party does not give way, the approval will not be forthcoming.
In the course of negotiations, Chinese write down every word of the remarks made by the opposing party, and any contradictions and inconsistencies that they discover they hurl at the latter, thereby moving the course of the negotiations in their direction (Fang, p. 264). Insofar as they are using deficiencies of the opposing party’s argument as weapons against the latter, they are “killing with the knife of the other party.”
Stratagem prevention
Any spontaneous, impulsive actions in the spirit of the Chinese saying “Hardly have the eyes seen some injustice on the street than the hand grasps the sword so as to provide help” should be avoided.
Rather, you should take a somewhat closer look at the situation, since otherwise you can be exploited with ease. You should not allow yourself to be used all too easily to serve someone else’s interests, especially if the other person is expecting this to result in damage to a third party. Say no to the role of cannon fodder! Don’t do other people’s dirty work for them!
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Stratagem risk
The borrowed “knife” can be blunt. If one casts out the devil with the help of Beelzebub, the end result can be damage to oneself.