The Chinese air force propaganda effort has gone Hollywood, according to a report.
The military’s publicity team has released an action-packed video of bombers in a simulated attack on a US base using scenes that seem to have been lifted from the 2008 Oscar-winner “The Hurt Locker” and the 1996 action flick “The Rock,” the South China Morning Post reported.
A source close to the Chinese armed forces told the news outlet that it was common practice for the People’s Liberation Army publicity unit to “borrow” from Hollywood blockbusters to make their productions look more thrilling.
“Almost all of the officers in the department grew up watching Hollywood movies, so in their minds, American war films have the coolest images,” the source told the South China Morning Post, adding that the army was unlikely to face any backlash over copyright infringements.
“There won’t be any intellectual property problems as only a few seconds of footage was used and the PLA film is not for commercial release,” the source told the Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper.
In 2011, local broadcaster CCTV showed a film about a Chinese military training exercise that included “borrowed” footage from the 1986 hit “Top Gun,” starring Tom Cruise as US Navy hotshot pilot Maverick, the Morning Post reported.
Military commentator Song Zhongping said the Chinese people were unlikely to care whether the footage was lifted from a Hollywood movie because they’re more concerned about the main message — that the PLA would never let any foreign force interfere on the Taiwan issue.
The video — which is called “The God of War H-6K Goes on the Attack!” — was released Saturday on the People’s Liberation Army Air Force Weibo account, Reuters reported.
It shows nuclear-capable H-6K long-range bombers flying from bases in western China to the Pacific, where they drop their ordnance on a naval base that bears a striking resemblance to Andersen Air Force Base on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam.
A pilot is seen pressing a button and firing off a missile at an unidentified seaside runway — a satellite image of which is shown that looks exactly like the layout of Andersen. The music then halts as images of the ground shaking appear, following by dramatic views of an explosion.
“We are the defenders of the motherland’s aerial security; we have the confidence and ability to always defend the security of the motherland’s skies,” the air force wrote in a description for the video.
Guam is home to major US military facilities that would be key to responding to any conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.
“But the PLA isn’t focused solely on Guam,” said Song, who is based in Hong Kong. “The US has strategic bombers deployed at numerous bases across the Asia-Pacific region, including ones in Japan.”
Drew Thompson — a former US Defense Department official with responsibility for managing Washington’s relations with mainland China and Taiwan –said the propaganda video was intended as a warning to any country that was within the Chinese air force’s strike range.
“The messages put out by the People’s Republic of China propaganda machine threaten anyone who opposes [mainland] China or the Communist Party,” he told the South China Morning Post. “[The footage] warns that the PLA is prepared to use force to settle differences.”
The aircraft — which also are capable of carrying long-range cruise missiles — were China’s first strategic bomber and specifically designed to target Taiwan, the news outlet reported.
In the past week, they have frequently been seen entering Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen slammed Beijing on Sunday for ramping up its “intimidation” of the self-ruled island.
On Monday, Taiwan said it has the right to self-defense and counter-attack amid “harassment and threats” — an apparent warning to China, which last week sent multiple jets across the mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait, according to Reuters.
Tensions have escalated in recent months between Taipei and Beijing, which claims democratically run Taiwan as its own territory and to be seized by force if necessary.
“Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing.
The official China Daily newspaper also said the US was trying to use Taiwan to contain China but that no one should underestimate its determination to assert its sovereignty over the island, Reuters reported.
“The US administration should not be blinkered in its desperation to contain the peaceful rise of China and indulge in the US addiction to its hegemony,” it said in an editorial.
Washington, which has no official diplomatic ties with the island but is its major international backer, is also planning major new arms sales to Taiwan.
Neither China’s defense ministry nor the US Indo-Pacific Command immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment on the video.
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