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Asia Minute: Chinese Bureaucrats’ Epic Photoshop Fail

Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons

China launched its second aircraft carrier today. The ceremony took place the same week that a publicity campaign involving the country’s first aircraft carrier produced some unexpected results. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

 

China’s Ministry of National Defense has been celebrating the 68th anniversary of its navy this week.

But the social media aspect of the anniversary campaign quickly ran into some rough waters.

A post earlier this week featured China’s single aircraft carrier…but the airplane pictured coming off the deck was actually a Russian MIG-35 fighter jet.

The three planes shown soaring above the carrier are all Chinese made…..but they are land-based aircraft…which would ordinarily never be close to an aircraft carrier.

It gets worse.

As part of the flotilla, the aircraft carrier is escorted by  a pair of other ships as part of the carrier group…which is realistic….except in this case they are amphibious assault ships belonging to the U-S Navy.

One columnist blasted the project as a massive “Photoshop fail.”

People shared other reactions online.

The South China Morning Post quoted one saying “we are so patriotic in vain”…and another blasted government officials…saying “this picture vividly shows that the propaganda department is made up of a group of imbeciles.”

On a more serious note, China launched its second aircraft carrier today. The ship went out from the port of Dalian—in northeast China—not far from the Korean peninsula.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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