The Coming War on China

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Oh say, can you see

By the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed

At the twilight's last gleaming

Whose broad stripes and bright stars,

Through the perilous fight

Over the ramparts we watched,

Were so gallantly streaming.

And the rockets red glare,

The bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night

That our flag was still there.

Oh, say, does--

- I pity a country that

would come up against us.

The synergy with air, land, and sea forces

and our ability to

control the battle space

and seize the high ground is devastating.

All countries respect the

power of the United States

and they respect how dominant

we are in this region.

And we get better and better and better.

(drums pounding)

- Tonight to ten,

a rare glimpse of China's

ambitious expansion

in one of the world's

most contested regions.

We report from the South China Sea,

where the Chinese are warning off anyone

who comes too close to

their building program.

- We continue our look this morning

at what China does not want you to see.

The United States says the superpower

is reclaiming land in the South China Sea.

- The fact that we're dealing

with a situation right now

where we, the US, has to

be much more aggressive

in dealing with the Chinese government.

- CNN has learned that the US Navy

is about to send a destroyer there.

Let's go to our CNN chief--

- [Announcer] CNN got

exclusive access to classified

US surveillance flights over the islands.

- [John Narrating] The threat

of China is becoming big news.

The media is beating the drums of war

as the world is being

primed to regard China

as a new enemy.

- [Announcer] China's alarming creation of

entirely new territory

in the South China Sea

is one part of a broader military push

that some fear is to challenge

US dominance in the region.

- [John Narrating] China

is building airstrips

in the South China Sea on disputed islands

condemned by an international tribunal.

This is now a flashpoint for war

between China and America.

What is not news is that

China itself is under threat.

These American bases form a giant noose,

encircling China with

missiles, bombers, warships.

All the way from Australia

through the Pacific,

to Asia, and beyond.

- If you were in Beijing looking out,

you stood on the tallest

building in Beijing

and looked out at the Pacific Ocean,

you'd see American warships.

You'd see Guam is about to sink

because there's so many

missiles pointed at China.

You'd look up at Korea and see

American armaments pointing at China.

You'd see Japan, which is basically,

Japan's a glove over the American fist.

I think if I was Chinese, I'd

have a little to worry about

about American aggressiveness.

- And we have China surrounded

and we're doing more

all the time to try and

keep it surrounded and deepen

that containment of China.

But China presents a fascinating case

of a country that is independent,

doesn't have foreign

bases on its territory,

growing very rapidly,

not as rapidly now as it did for 30 years,

but still the second-ranking

economy in the world.

- We have an adversary

and that adversary is

China and that adversary,

unless there is dramatic

reform inside China,

will be our enemy someday.

- One myth I think really

needs to be dispelled

is that somehow China's

aiming to replace America

and gonna run the world. (laughs)

First of all, the Chinese

are not that stupid.

The West, with its Christian roots,

are about converting other

people into their beliefs.

The Chinese are not about that.

Again, I'm not degrading

the Western culture.

I'm just pointing out the inherent nature,

the DNA's of two different cultures.

The Chinese 2000 years

ago built the Great Wall

to keep the barbarians

out, not to invade them.

- [John Narrating] As the

world's economic power

moves rapidly to Asia, the

response of the Untied States

is to deploy the majority

of its naval forces to Asia

and the Pacific.

This massive military buildup

is known in Washington as

the "Pivot to Asia."

The target is China.

The great power game in the 21st century

is called perpetual war.

For America's unchallenged arms industry,

the annual prize is huge profits

from almost 600 billion

dollars of military spending.

- [Announcer] Once an

imaginary weapon on Star Wars,

the electromagnetic gun is now reality.

- You're sitting here thinking about these

next-generation and futuristic ideas

and we've got scientists

who have designed these

and it's coming to life.

- [John Narrating] And the

smartest weapons need enemies.

- As a Pacific nation, the United States

will play a larger and long-term role

in shaping this region and its future.

I have directed my national security team

to make our presence and

mission in the Asian-Pacific

a top priority.

- In one sense, is the US

already at war with China?

- Yes.

On the ground and in the air.

The winner of the Nobel Peace

Prize, President Barack Obama,

has committed to trillions

of dollars to our nuclear arsenal.

He's committing trillions

of future dollars

to war in space and we need

an enemy for all this money

and China's the perfect enemy.

- The aim of this film

is to break a silence.

The United States and China

may well be on a path to war

and nuclear war is no longer unthinkable.

In a few years, China

has become the world's

second biggest economic power.

The United States is the

world's biggest military power,

with bases and missiles and ships

covering every continent, every ocean.

China is a threat to this

dominance, says Washington,

but who is the threat?

This film is about shifting

power and great danger.

It's also a film about the human spirit

and the rise of an extraordinary

resistance among people

on the front line of a coming war

where the words "never

again" have an urgent meaning

for all of us.

(somber music)

- [John Narrating] This is Bikini,

the rim of an ancient underwater volcano

in the Marshall Islands.

With its necklace of 23 islands,

Bikini is a place of beauty

and silence and menace.

Look closely where the Emerald Lagoon

suddenly falls into a vast black hole.

This is the crater of one of

the greatest manmade explosions,

the hydrogen bomb they call Bravo.

It vaporized an entire island

and poisoned almost

everything and everyone.

As our plane flew low, we seemed

to touch its deathly void.

The Marshall Islands lie

in the vast Pacific Ocean

between the United States and Asia.

Captured from the

Japanese in World War Two,

they've long been

America's strategic secret,

it's stepping stone to Asia and China.

(guitar music)

People here sustain themselves

for thousands of years

with abundant fish,

breadfruit, and coconuts.

They were skilled navigators

who sailed by the stars.

Westerners might call this paradise.

All that changed in 1946

when the United States took

over the Marshall Islands

as a Trust Territory with an obligation

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