The greatest threat to world peace may well be the military build-up in the South Pacific – but it's not China we should fear, it's the United States.

That, at least, is the thesis of The Coming War on China, the latest polemic from the award-winning documentary-maker John Pilger.

The military build-up in the region "is now a flashpoint for a war between China and America," 77-year-old Pilger says in the film. "The United States and China may well be on a path to war, and nuclear war is no longer unthinkable."

That China is building military bases on reclaimed reefs and disputed islands in the region has "rightly" been big news in the Western media. But, he adds, "What is not news is that China itself is under threat. The aim of this film is to break a silence."