TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s Eastern Theater Command has released a questionable video celebrating the Lantern Festival and ties with Taiwan, which has received a lot of flak.
The combat group is headquartered in Nanjing, China, and its theater of responsibility includes the Taiwan Strait. The one minute 25 second video production includes the usual shots of red lanterns and touching family moments, jarringly interspersed with threatening images of war and military strength.
It caught the attention of the TVBS anchor and military correspondent Tingting Liu (劉亭廷), who described it on Twitter as “quite disturbing to many in TW” (Taiwan).
It starts with a facetime call between a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jet fighter dad and his daughter, who reminds him it's the Lantern Festival. He tells her he will not forget and will “hang moon lights” for her when he flies that night — the point being the moon represents unity and togetherness.
This wishful thinking on the part of China’s leadership plays out with shots of jets scrambling on patrols, warships menacing, and soldiers in action. The video follows up with images of missile launchers.
Interestingly, the video shows footage from Eastern Theater Command exercises that menaced Taiwan after the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August. It also launched multiple missiles in waters around Taiwan.
Eastern Theater Command is responsible for ramping up daily incursions on Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), and crossing the Taiwan Strait median line. It also regularly holds military drills in the area.
Finally, in the video, there are images of traveling and new year celebrations in Taiwan and China, with a voiceover saying, “Protect the good old days of families on both sides of the strait.”
Liu commented: “While the execution of this video is different from the usual militaristic-centric approach favored by the (Eastern Theater Command), the messaging remains consistent with the (CCP’s) stance of (unification) with Taiwan by force if necessary.”
Other comments included:
Passive aggressive creepiness.
— AtlasSquint (@AtlasSquint) February 5, 2023
Hahahaha. “Let’s reunite and celebrate the Lantern Festival, but also here are all my guns I will use on you if you don’t” -China
— Sleeping Thoughts (@TherealAble) February 6, 2023