If China Central Television (CCTV) wants to strike fear deep into the hearts of the Pentagon and the Japanese Ministry of Defense, it has to be more careful with footage selection. In its October 15 evening newscast, CCTV showed clips of a military exercise by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army that simulates seizure of an island, clearly implying China’s military readiness to engage in combat over territorial disputes like that over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.
However, laser-eyed Chinese netizens pointed out that a soldier shown to be “collecting and analyzing intelligence” was using QQ Messenger, China’s most popular instant messenger service, and officers commanding the exercise were using a Sony VAIO laptop, a Japanese product reviled by China’s radical “patriots.”
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