PLA-backed video game lets players seize Diaoyus
Glorious Mission Online, China's answer to Call of Duty, marks the 86th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
A video game backed by the PLA that lets players fight enemy forces in islands disputed between Beijing and Tokyo was released last week.
, China's answer to , marks the 86th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army.
The game, an online version of an earlier first-person shooter used by the PLA to train troops, features the East China Sea islands known as the Diaoyus in China and the Senkakus in Japan. A press release for the game says: "Players … will fight alongside Chinese armed forces and use weapons to tell the Japanese that 'Japan must return our stolen territory!'"
Images from the game's website are labelled "Guard the Diaoyu Islands", and a trailer posted online features shots of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It also shows planes taking off from a computer-generated version of China's first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, which went into service last year.
The game became available on Thursday, said its designers Giant Interactive.
Giant co-operated closely with the PLA while working on the game to ensure that weapons looked authentic and soldiers' voices were accurate, said company vice-president Gu Wen.
"Our relationship with the military is like the relationship between the US army and Hollywood," he said. "It's about soft power. Through the game we want to allow ordinary people to gain an understanding of the army, which is often seen as closed-off and mysterious.
