In these tense times, the lack of loud war drums in Beijing and Washington has been a rare source of comfort. True, the drums don’t go quiet at all. Some US generals and politicians have spoken about the possibility of conflict with China within a few years, which is less helpful than they anticipate. Fighter jets of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) are circling wildly nearby, high-speed pass To threaten Western military aircraft in international airspace near China. The PLA refuses to discuss rules to safely manage close encounters, because it wants to scare away foreign warplanes and ships. It shows dangerous appetite for risk. The US and China are at loggerheads over a minor crisis: the downing of an unmanned Chinese surveillance balloon. what are their expectations managing a collision The equivalent of the one in 2001 that killed a PLA pilot and forced an American spy plane to crash-land at a Chinese air base?
Yet, when President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping meet in person Last November, they agreed on the need to avoid armed conflict. Chinese censors routinely silence online nationalists calling for attacks on Taiwan, because the public does not have the right to dictate to Mr. Xi when or how to conquer that island. Chinese public opinion has, to date, been unwilling to sacrifice decades of rising prosperity on the altars of war.
A new film about China’s air force tests that record of restraint. “Born to Fly” in collaboration with PLA has topped the list domestic box office during the May Day holiday. It depicts test pilots risking (and losing) their lives to perfect a new stealth fighter. The aircraft is needed for a war against a foreign power, though speaks unnamed, American-accented English.
Readers planning to watch the movie should return to this spoiler-filled column later. Others should be aware that the film breaks new ground in the “mainstream” genre, as known for works promoting major party policies. Such films are shown for commercial screenings as well as to students, party members and government employees across the country. is “Born to Fly”. The most high-profile blow of its kind is intended to normalize the notion that the current PLA’s mission is to fight and kill Americans.
The film makes a lot of its realism. Film-makers have singled out veterans of the PLA to praise its authenticity and even the acting of its young male lead, Wang Yibo, an elf former singer in a boy band. But its geopolitical basis is bogus. In the real world, China is embroiled in territorial disputes with several neighbors. In particular, China claims to control almost all South China Sea, PLA is building bases on disputed rocks and cliffs. To challenge China’s unilateral claims and uphold the principle of freedom of navigation, the US and other powers fly and sail through areas of the South China Sea that are considered open to all by international law.
“Born to Fly” turns such missions into acts of war. The film begins with alien jets smashing windows and Chinese fishermen and oil field workers being thrown into the sea with a low, supersonic pass. The attackers laugh at each other “well done”. Told by radio that they are in an area under Chinese jurisdiction, the foreigners reply: “We can come and go whenever we want.” This time on Chinese fighters, PLA has advanced jets and repulses them.
Disappointingly, the film blends anti-American fantasies with some of Mr. Xi’s top priorities. Test pilots are told they are in a battle against technological blockade and containment tactics imposed by foreign powers, a line echoing Mr Xi’s call for self-reliance. What’s more, the story of the male lead may have been inspired by Mr. Xi’s many speeches to youth, which stress discipline and condemn blandness. The hero is brutalized when he reaches his desert air base. But after visiting a martyrs’ cemetery for test pilots and seeing his commander choose death to avoid being ousted from a city, he dedicates his life to his motherland. When the youth is injured, his parents ask him to leave the PLA. They complain about the rejection of their earlier offer to study abroad and express doubt that China can ever compete with Western aircraft. The protagonist scolds his over-protective parents, informing them that his generation will give China its trust back. Even an inane plot device, in which the protagonist designs an aircraft-saving technology on his laptop in his spare time, aligns with a PLA campaign to recruit college graduates with engineering and computing skills.
superpower buzz
Successful patriotic acts reflect how the country wishes to see itself. ,wolf warrior 2“, a wildly popular film released in 2017, is misconstrued as war-mongering. In fact, the plot depicts a Chinese commando evacuating civilians from an African civil conflict with the help of a half-American doctor (Though the commando also punches a racist foreign mercenary to death, that’s true.) The China of the film is a proud peacemaker. At one point, a Chinese warship threatens to approve a missile strike by the United Nations Security Council. In contrast, “Born to Fly” shows China overcoming backwardness to fight America head-on: a very grim story.
Foreign reviewers have called “Born to Fly” a copy of “Top Gun: Maverick,” a film about American fighter pilots released last year, though not in China. While many scenes look similar, the critique is unfair to both films. “Top Gun: Maverick” is sad and melancholic, and as interested in human frailties as noisy machines. It depicts a weary superpower and an aging pilot defending a rules-based order, ie, a multilateral treaty on non-proliferation. I wish “Born to Fly” was closer in spirit to the first “Top Gun”. “Top Gun” with added nationalistic grunts and no sex. If it hits theaters in China, it should sound like a beat-drum to the world.
Read more on China from Chaguan, our columnist:
Chinese rulers play law and order card and lose (27 April)
Why China wants to be a risk (20 April)
Why is Xi Jinping not another Chairman Mao (April 5)
Also: How Chaguan column got its name
© 2023, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under license. Original content can be found at www.economist.com
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