John Pilger’s The Coming War on China is on SBS on Sunday: here’s a resource package

Late last year, John Pilger, journalist and film-maker, released his documentary, The Coming War on China. It didn’t get much of a run in theatres though it got a review in the Sydney Morning Herald and another in The Age, both reviews being rather gruff. The film was made before the United States election and the accession of Trump.

Pilger’s film is to have a television run on Sunday, 16 April at 8.30 pm on SBS, then on Iview. Honest History’s Alison Broinowski reviewed the film during its rapid pass through Sydney in February and she said:

Australia, as a bead in the necklace [of US bases] around China, is deeply implicated [in potential action against China] by Pine Gap and by other bases under construction. Obama’s drone strikes in Iraq, Pilger says, are coordinated from Pine Gap. A future government which tried to close them, as Malcolm Fraser recommended, would probably be “destabilised”.

(JohnPilger.com)

There is other relevant material in this You Tube video of Pilger talking about the film, this longer You Tube video of Pilger doing a Q&A, and this review from Richard Phillips on the World Socialist Web Site (also in parts gruff, but in a different way to the gentlemen from Fairfax). We looked for other coverage in the mainstream media; if readers find some please send us the link – or offer your comments on the film after its showing.

It is not clear whether Pilger intends to make a sequel, The Coming War on North Korea, or even The Coming War on Russia. Will he have to move fast? And is it just a coincidence that the SBS showing is on Easter Sunday? What resurrections may we expect?

David Stephens

14 April 2017