US B-52 Bombers Appear in Chinese Military Training Game

In an article entitled “Sword to cut off the head of devils!” the website of China’s state-run newspaper Global Times showed a screenshot with a Chinese soldier pointing a rocket launcher at two B-52 bombers flying overhead. The screenshot is from the latest update of “Glorious Mission,” the official training video game of the People’s Liberation Army, on a level that takes place on the contested Senkaku Islands.

The two B-52 bombers in the game are likely a reference to the two B-52 bombers the U.S. Air Force flew over the region on Nov. 26 after China declared an air defense zone over international waters in the East China Sea. The move was hailed as an act of defiance against growing Chinese aggression.

Glorious Mission was originally called “Glorious Revolution,” when it was first released as a training tool for the Chinese military. It was later made available to the Chinese public and is heavily laden with propaganda for the ruling Chinese Communist Party .

While the game’s level that allows members of the Chinese military to fight the Japanese on the Senkaku Islands was announced in July, the scene of B-52 bombers flying overhead appears to be a recent addition. The two planes are also not the first to represent American forces in the game. From its initial release, the game featured enemy troops with uniforms and vehicles of the United States and its allies.

The Global Times story explains the virtual training mission in excited detail. It begins by painting a verbal scene of the Japanese invasion of China during World War 2, then casts the dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the same light.

It says, translated from Chinese, that in “the setting sun, on the beach beautiful and bustling, greedy Japanese coveted this piece of paradise” and “attempt to plunder our precious cultural heritage.”

Continue reading here