The Coming War on China: A pacifist appeal
By
Richard Phillips
14 April 2017
Written and directed by John Pilger
John Pilger’s The Coming War on China, which was shown last year in Britain and recently screened in a few Australian and New Zealand cinemas, is about the US military encirclement of China and the danger of a catastrophic war between the two nuclear-armed powers. The feature-length documentary will be broadcast on Australia’s state-funded SBS network on April 16.
The film’s aim, Pilger tells viewers, is to “break a silence” about the US aggression against China—the largest build-up of American-led forces in the Pacific since World War II. Washington’s “pivot to Asia” was officially launched in 2011 with the active support of the Australian and Japanese governments and other key allies.
The film begins with the American national anthem playing against photographs of war devastation in Hiroshima and Vietnam. It cuts to Major General Franklin J. Blaisdell, former US Air and Space Operation Integration director, boasting about the destructive power of the US military.
US President Donald Trump appears in the final minutes of the documentary, declaring that “China is raping the US” but that “America is back, bigger, better and stronger than ever.”
The film includes other chilling statements from US military strategists and anti-China hawks, and warnings from concerned American scientists, such as professors Ted Postol and Stephen Starr, that a nuclear war would destroy human existence on the planet.
Andrew Krepinevich, from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, bogusly insists that the US is only responding to Beijing’s…