politics - Was Sun Tzu a paranoid?

Howard French writes an insightful "Letter from China" where he wonders why the US can only react by increasing their military budget for fight a, perhaps, imaginary enemie.

A paranoid would be tempted to suspect China of baiting the United States into an arms race - of using a classic game theory ploy to feign sweeping modernization in order to get the Americans to overreact in ruinous ways. The problem is we've never needed encouragement to overindulge the needs of the iron triangle.

Well, the famous Chinese strategist Sun Tze might have been such a paranoid. I might be a paranoid then too, but at least I'm in good company.