The Coming War on China Page #8

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It's a tribute to the

suffering and resistance

of the people of this island.

More than 1000 miles away on

the Korean island of Jeju,

these symbols of struggle

are hauntingly similar.

The work of Korean sculptor Koh Gil-chun,

represents another fight of

island people for freedom.

(gentle music)

A semi-tropical sanctuary

of unusual beauty,

Jeju Island is a world heritage site.

The government of South Korea declared it

an island of world peace.

But on this island of peace has been built

one of the most provocative

military bases in the world,

less than 400 miles from Shanghai.

Like Okinawa and the Marshall Islands,

this is America's

frontline in it's so-called

"Pivot to Asia."

Here in once unspoiled Gangjeong Village,

the South Korean Navy has built a base

for American aircraft carriers,

nuclear submarines, and destroyers

equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile

aimed at China's defenses.

China's lifelines to the world

in oil, trade, resources,

depend on shipping that comes through

chokepoints like this.

- The US pivot into the Asian-Pacific

is really intended to create the ability

to put a loaded gun to the head of China

and say, you will do as we say

otherwise we will be able to restrict.

We'll be able to shut down, choke off

your importation of oil

and other resources.

(chanting)

- [John Narrating] For

nine years, every day,

often twice a day, these Catholic priests

have staged a mass that blocked the gates

of the new military base on Jeju Island.

(singing)

In a country where

political demonstrations

can be easily banned,

unlike powerful religions,

the tactic has produced this

spectacle of resistance.

(man speaking on loudspeaker)

(speaks foreign language)

Father Mun Jeong-hyeon has led the fight

to stop the base being built

and several times

suffered serious injuries.

(singing)

- I sing four songs everyday.

Before the Mass, during the

Mass, at the end of the Mass

and the end of the rosary.

The content of song is very beautiful.

The writer and composer is the musician

from this island.

I love him very much and

he gave me their song

which I practiced and I became a master

to sing that song because I

practice everyday. (laughs)

- [John] You sing it with such passion.

(singing)

- Sometimes we just wait.

Typhoon, typhoon strike!

- [John] Do you sing then?

Do you have a Mass when

the typhoons strike?

- Oh yes.

No exceptions.

- [John] What will happen

if this base becomes operational?

- They have destroyed the environment,

they destroy the life of all of us.

We should be witness of their

oppression and violence.

- [John] Why do they do it?

- They'd like to rule the

Pacific area, the whole area.

They'd like to make China

isolated in this globe.

The US government want to

be in power of this world.

(laughs)

- [John Narrating] Meanwhile,

a Quaker called Mr. Oh

joins them with his own ritual of protest,

accompanied by an artist

called Wild Flower.

- [John Narrating] This

is the center of an empire

that never speaks its name,

whose power is represented in

this extraordinary world map

of American military bases.

4000 bases in the United States,

almost 1000 bases spread

across every continent.

- The archipelago of empire,

the bases that we have around the world

hidden in plain sight are the

real territory of our empire

but at the same time we

maintain independent governments

in Japan or South Korea or Germany.

They don't have autonomy when

it comes to foreign policy.

So it's a very sophisticated

and effective system

whereby we pat ourselves on the back for

helping to midwife democracy in Japan

and Germany and South Korea

and various other places

while keeping the lid

on in that we don't know

what these countries would do if they were

fully independent.

And the beauty of this system is that

most people pay no attention to it at all.

They think it's just a natural occurrence

to have 50,000 American troops in Japan.

- There's no country that has

better anti-imperial credit--

(laughs) cred, then the United States.

And we are not trying to recreate

the glories of the British Empire.

We're arguing that the world is round.

We have a global policy

and all nations have global rights.

- No ocean has ever been dominated

the way the US dominates the

Pacific, Navy and Air Force.

They claim that in the

Pearl Harbor headquarters

of the Pacific Command,

they claim to be responsible

for 52 percent of the Earth's surface.

And when you look at their logo,

it shows an eagle over

the Aleutian Islands

with one tail coming down

somewhere near Seattle

and the other coming

down right over Beijing.

So Beijing looks at a network of bases,

a real archipelago of empire

that's been built up since the Korean War.

- You have had and still have

an arc of bases that start in Australia

and go through the Pacific--

- No.

We have no bases in Australia.

- You have Pine Gap, you have Darwin--

- No.

- And you have a new facility

in Western Australia.

- No, to speak precisely,

we have no military bases in Australia.

What we do is is operate

with and in Australian bases.

But we're not in the

basing business nowadays.

- There's a growing collection

of what are referred to as

"lilypad bases."

These are bases that have

typically two, 300 troops,

no family members, very few amenities,

and they are often quite secretive.

They are bases that are

frequently constructed

within a foreign country's

base to disguise it

and generally are not

referred to as bases.

- [John Narrating] Many of

these bases have been set up

to combat China's worldwide

economic influence.

From these bases, the United

States operates a secret army

in 147 countries.

- If you're gonna be a free country

rather than give in to every

gangster regime in the world,

you're gonna have to take a risk.

'Cause the gangsters,

they want to eliminate

good people in the world so they can--

and in China, they want to

dominate all of the Far East,

they want to dominate.

Just like Japan wanted

to before World War Two.

Their goal was to dominate

that part of the world.

Today, because there's been no

political reform in Beijing,

these guys want to dominate

a huge chunk of the planet.

(mumbles)

- [John Narrating] Andrew

Krepinevich served on

America's National Defense Panel.

He's a military strategist

and war planner.

- You've written that

airstrikes and naval blockades

have a role to play in punishing China.

You've described the need for sea mines.

You've described the

need for special forces,

US Special Forces, and

missiles placed on islands.

This sounds like a preparation for war.

- Our first president, George Washington,

said that if you want

peace, prepare for war.

And essentially what the

United States is doing again

is responding to provocative

behavior on the part of China.

And just as we did in the Cold War,

the idea was to have a

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