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CCP Centennial Propaganda: CCTV Uses Footage From Indian Air Force, Xi Promises Taiwan Unification

Prakash Gogoi
Prakash covers news and politics for Vision Times.
Published: July 8, 2021
CCTV plagiarized a clip from Indian Air Force and presented it as Chinese.
CCTV plagiarized a clip from Indian Air Force and presented it as Chinese. (Image: WikiImages via Pixabay)

July 1 marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). On the occasion, state-backed media CGTN released a propaganda video of the PLA Air Force through its Twitter account. It was later discovered that the video actually contained plagiarized footage from an Indian Air Force video. 

Posted and deleted on June 30, the tweet talked about the PLA Air Force’s launch of its first J-10 fighter jet in the early 2000s. It included a video that covered the story of a Chinese pilot who flew fighter jets for 15 years.

A clip in the video showed India’s indigenous Tejas fighter plane dropping a bomb, claiming that it displayed the strength of the Chinese J-10 fighter. The Indian clip was taken from the video “Glorious Fighter Launching Missiles” that was released by the Indian Air Force eight years ago. CGTN edited and darkened the clip.

After social media users pointed out the plagiarism, CGTN deleted the tweet. However, it soon became the focus of mockery and criticism.

“Lol China using Indian LCA Tejas footage in its propaganda video. Once a thief always a thief,” said one Twitter user.

“Their imitating skill is marvelous. Once they have made a F-35 in 2016 just by imitating and spying in Lockheed. When US secretary visited China in 2016, China introduced him their latest aircraft. US secretary was shocked to see the level of imitation China had done,” said another tweet.

There have been several other instances of communist China using footage of other nations for its military propaganda. In 2011, state-backed CCTV published a video to promote the J-10 fighter in which the aircraft was shown launching a missile to destroy another craft. The scene was actually taken from the Hollywood movie Top Gun.

In 2020, the PLA Air Force Weibo account posted a video titled “The God of War H-6K Goes on the Attack” which showed Chinese H-6K twin-engine jet bombers attacking an American Air Force base look-alike. Netizens soon exposed the plagiarized video to be scenes from Hollywood films like The Rock, The Hurt Locker, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The J-10 fighter jet, also known as Firebird, is designed primarily for air-to-air combat by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC). It shares many similarities with General Dynamics’ F-16. General Dynamics is the third largest defense contractor in the United States as of 2020.

According to Popular Mechanics, Israel sold the development plans of their Lavi fighter jet to communist China. Israel had been developing the fighter jet in partnership with the U.S. The Chinese military acquired technologies developed for the F-16, considerably helping its jet development program. The memoirs of one of J-10’s designers, Gu Songfen, also indirectly pointed to Israeli assistance. 

Chinese military, Taiwan takeover

During his speech at the centennial celebration, President Xi Jinping explicitly warned that anyone who tries to bully China “will face broken heads and bloodshed.”

The Chinese head of state declared that the communist party will continue to maintain absolute control over the military, which now has the second-largest annual budget in the world. 

“We will turn the people’s military into a world-class military, with even stronger capabilities and even more reliable means to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” he said, according to Associated Press

Xi claimed that the CCP has brought order to Hong Kong and reiterated that it was determined to bring Taiwan under communist China’s control.

Su Tzu-yun, director of the Defense Strategy and Resources Division of the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, interviewed with The Epoch Times. He said that the CCP is struggling economically and politically with regard to the Taiwan issue. He is not worried about communist China using military force to annex Taiwan anytime in the near future.

However, Su advised Taiwan to continue strengthening its self-defense forces. He also believed that the communist party’s centennial celebration was a front to hide the troubles the party was facing internally in the mainland.

“The purpose of the CCP’s celebration is just showing its force … which is hiding its weakness in both domestic and diplomatic affairs… They should be happy to celebrate the party’s centennial … They were anxious and panicked… It’s a reflection of the difficult situation that CCP is facing,” Su said.

In a July 1 statement, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that the country’s citizens reject the CCP’s one-sided unification policy. It stated that the council will uphold the values of the rule of law, freedom, democracy, and human rights.

Beijing has offered Taiwan the “One Country, Two Systems” framework as a unification agreement under which Taiwan would retain its democracy. However, the communist regime has not adhered to a similar agreement given to Hong Kong and has tightened its grip over the city. Neither Taiwan’s government nor its people have shown any interest in the offer. 

Taiwan is a democratically ruled island nation with a well-developed economy. Last year, the island nation registered an annual GDP growth rate of 2.98 percent, outgrowing communist China for the first time in three decades.