Sun Tzu's answer: you don't need real strength if you can control perception of strength. The Art of War isn't really a military manual — it's a manual for winning without fighting, because fighting is where the illusion breaks. The moment actual contact happens, the inversion is exposed. The emperor has no clothes, the army is hollow, the financier's power evaporates the instant people stop believing in the debt.

The Art of War says the supreme victory is winning without fighting. For the principalities, the supreme victory is ruling without being identified as rulers. The moment the governed population accurately perceives the ratio — that the structure depends on their compliance, not the ruler's strength — the inversion collapses.

Sun Tzu would recognize the counter-strategy immediately: when you are strong (which the populace always is, numerically), appear weak — not to deceive, but because you don't need to project. You just need to stop believing the projection aimed at you. The moment you do, the war is already over. That's why the manipulator's top fear is being identified. Identification is the defeat. The projection collapses under accurate perception.