Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Memo to China: If you’re going to pirate footage from a Hollywood film for propaganda purposes, make sure you borrow from something few have seen.
China Central Television, a government-sponsored broadcaster, recently aired footage purportedly of a Chinese J-10 fighter demonstrating its air-to-air combat prowess. In the clip aired over Chinese television, the fighter fires a missile at another plane, blowing it to bits.
A Chinese blogger immediately recognized the footage, identifying it as a scene from the hit American film, Top Gun, in which a U.S. F-14 Tomcat shoots down an F-5, also made in the U.S.A.
No one from broadcaster CCT has said anything about the apparent fraud.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Did Chinese TV Pass Off Top Gun Footage as a Military Drill? (by Joshua Keating, Foreign Policy)
China Red-Faced after Footage of New Fighter 'Was from Top Gun' (The Telegraph)
Chinese TV Coverage (YouTube)
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