The US military is working on new “smart armour”. And state-controlled China Central Television recently covered the gear by passing off fan-made Halo battlewear as U.S. military concepts. This is not a joke.
The program was New Defence Observations, a military show (read: propaganda), on Channel 7. On the October 19 episode, which is recently causing a stir in China, a segment talked about the “smart amour.”
New Defence Observations is hosted by Li Li, a professor at PLA National Defence University who serves in the Chinese military and is listed as a “Military Questions Expert” on this government-sponsored television show.
The program compared the new U.S. military tech to Iron Man, using an image from Iron Man 3. In the upper corner, it clearly says, “movie image” (电影剧照). Then, the show flashes to the image below:
Here, the upper corner reads: “U.S. Military Concept Armour” (美军装甲衣概念图). “If this armour was made for units or small groups it could be done,” said the show’s host, “but it would be too expensive for mass roll-out.”
“It’s unknown how effective such armour would be in actual combat in protecting the soldier,” the professor added. “We will have to wait and see.”
Wait several hundred years until the 26th century when Halo is set? This is not U.S. Military concept armour! This is fan-made Halo armour, created for a fan film by the 405th, a Halo prop builder and costume community.
Online in China, the screw-up is causing the inevitable eye-rolling among many Chinese net users. One Sina Weibo user wrote, “Master Chief! How did you end up on CCTV? And you also joined the US Army…” Another added, “Watching CCTV doesn’t seem to enhance my IQ.” Others also pointed out that this was Halo and not the U.S. Military.
Maybe the show’s producers thought they could pull a fast one in a country where game consoles have been banned? Maybe this was an honest screw up? But this kind of thing is par for the course for the country’s propaganda machine: Earlier this year, a Chinese newspaper confused a DeviantArt creation with the Japanese military, and this summer, Battlestar Galactica was confused with a futuristic aircraft carrier.
Eric Jou contributed to this report.
揭秘”福特”号”超级航母”的超级特点 [CCTV]
Comments
7 responses to “No, China, Master Chief’s Battle Suit Is Not Real”
“Would you like to know more?”
Let’s see how many people get this reference — I know the Chinese wouldn’t haha
I don’t know what’s more eye-rollingly jingoistic, the Iron Patriot screencap, or the Chinese anchor in her dress uniform with a million medals and stripes, and helicopter set. Then you realise one is satirical fiction and the other is actually a real news desk.
Heh. And just think… These folks don’t get to see the ‘real’ Internet (legally) except as glimpses through a window, all while this weird propaganda tries to convince them that the rest of the world is developing ultratech superweapons they should be afraid of. Impressive, really!
No, this is basically news in any country, US, Australia, China and where everywhere else, absolute propaganda rubbish.
Just like everywhere else you have a country made up of idiots who believe what the papers and TV tell them, those who don’t, and those who don’t care.
(And remember people know how to bypass just about any restrictions to surfing the web, China is no different)
Remember the video of the giant catfish killed in China? the web was filled with people saying it was a baby whale shark, how stupid they were for not knowing and how evil they were for killing it. In reality the story was about a baby whale shark that was hit by a boat…..you can be stupid and blind no matter you country of origin
Heh. And just think… These folks don’t actually get to see what really goes on in Syria and everywhere else their country invades and/or want’s to invade!
They only get glimpses, like trying to see through a foggy window of propaganda, where the only things they see are the vaguely shaped silhouettes of lies and bias, convincing them that the rest of the world is evil and that they’re the ones doing the righteousness – fighting to protect their very own ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ from those who ‘threaten’ to take it.
Impressive, really!
http://www.gifcrap.com/g2data/albums/Forum/Captain%20America%20understood%20that%20reference.gif
“It is afraid!”
Right now i just want 2 know when the champions bundle release date was announced
http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/07/a-new-bundle-of-dlc-is-coming-to-halo-4-in-aug/