The Coming War on China

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Seasoned journalist John Pilger casts a light on the amount of US Naval Bases situated around China and the amount of warships pointing in their direction, and the globally catastrophic consequences this hostility could create. He charts the shameful, untold history of the US army's activities on the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, where they were lied to about chemical testing and the terrible consequences it's had years later, as well as revealing how General Mao may not have been the monster the imperialist west made him out to be.

China is certainly the main contender looking to take it's shot at being top boy on the world stage, from trade to military might, but it seems the almighty US of A doesn't want to go down without a fight, and, knowing its enemy, is aggressively trying to keep it in its place. At least that's the picture that director John Pilger is trying to portray, and although he offers alternative viewpoints to speak their mind, it's clear throughout which country he thinks is most to blame for this feud. At any rate, he's certainly produced something that is a contrary assault on the western media's presentation of Chinese life under a 'communist' regime.

Pilger highlights what could only be described as one of the US's dirty little secrets, questionable testing on minuscule little islands tucked out of sight off the coast of China, where untold damage was inflicted in pursuit of a rich, powerful countries aggressive expansion. Not being familiar with any of his work before, it's hard to know if any political affiliation is swaying his views, but he's certainly created a well researched and eye opening documentary that just about manages to excuse the just under two hour running time.

An absorbing and, ultimately, chilling account of what may be to come. ****

The US government has been conducting covert operations since WW I. And probably many other nations do that same thing. The world is sadly so indoctrinated with false information and the media and the school systems are so controlled that the truth does not reach the people. Therefor I am glad John Pilger made this film and showed not only evidence of those covert actions by the US government but also the heroic and relentless effort that other so called ordinary people make to expose and oppose these actions. This movie is made in deep honor of all those who have been railroaded And even killed by these actions of a nation that has grown to have become the largest psychotic, delusional, megalomaniacal force in this world. Sadly again many of its inhabitants as well as people from other nations are indoctrinated because of false information and lack of true information and will hold on to that this film as well as many other proof belongs in the category of conspiracy theories. The only thing someone has to do to get to the truth is rid oneself of all prejudices and look at the information with an open mind. Take that challenge and watch this movie and see for yourself. Only the truth will set you free.

Another documentary that shows how bad the united states are. The Nazis were bad and after they were beaten, the US started exactly the same. Starting wars include illegal wars, killing people by using them as test material for their nuclear weapons tests. But the world did nothing. Japan is today a Colonie of the US and South Korea is not better. An eye opener that should be at all schools in the world to see facts of the real America.

I'll leave to others to point out the many good parts in this which are not often heard about.

On Mao though, although the great famine was briefly mentioned, it conveniently missed out that his regime was also directly responsible for 55 MILLION deaths and was, by quite some margin, the largest mass murderer in history. Let that sink in. God forbid we ever let history repeat itself, by the actions of either side. Bad stuff has happened in the past, acknowledge it, learn from it and most of all support open discussion without bias.

I've really enjoyed Pilger's other documentaries but this one disappointed me. It's mostly technically competent (some inconsistent sound with Pilger's narration occasionally), and I'll give it props for its good intentions.

It covers issues that aren't talked about much, the same as many of Pilger's works, but the issue is the execution rather than the content. Things don't build and progress in a satisfying way, and the different subjects weren't linked together as coherently as I feel different (but related) subjects were in his other documentaries that I've watched.

So overall it's definitely not terrible, especially because of what it's trying to do- it's just disappointing when judged by how engaging it is.