Chinese Military Releases Cartoon Elf Video Threatening Taiwan

China PLA Eastern Command releases anime video threatening Taiwan, October 2, 2023.
Chinese People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command
Frances Martel

The Eastern Theater Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) published a propaganda video on Monday in which an anime-style elf appears to showcase Beijing’s advanced naval ships and fighter jets before symbolically “reuniting” communist China and free Taiwan.

The video, titled “Dreams Come True on the Fuchun River,” was released to celebrate “National Day,” the anniversary of communist mass murderer Mao Zedong’s founding of communist China. Its plot centers around “ancient elves” reuniting two pieces of a historical scroll housed separately in museums in China and Taiwan. As the elves put the scroll back together, the state-run Global Times threatened in its description of the video, so too will the Chinese Communist Party “reunite” China and Taiwan.

The Chinese dictatorship considers the nation of Taiwan a rogue “province” legitimately ruled by Beijing and refuses to maintain diplomatic relations with any country that acknowledges Taiwan. In reality, Taiwan is a sovereign state with independent institutions, a functional democratic system, and respect for human rights. The island of Taiwan has never been ruled by a government headquartered in Beijing.

“The short film adopts a personification technique and features the ancient-style elves the ‘Master Wuyong’ and ‘Remaining Mountain’ in animated form,” the Global Times explained, noting the Master Wuyong scroll is in Taipei’s National Palace Museum, where the Nationalists preserved priceless historical art dating to the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The art and history preserved in Taipei, by virtue of not being in China, were spared the widespread destruction of historical sites and items during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

The two elves in the video reportedly represent the scroll piece in Taipei. At the end of the video, they “return to [China] and reunite with the ‘Remaining Mountain Scroll’ housed in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, creating a story of reunification, and fulfilling dreams on the banks of the Fuchun River.”

Somewhere on the way to Zhejiang, the elves marvel at the PLA’s fighter jets and naval fleet.

“The video incorporates elements such as aircraft carrier formations and J-20 fighter jets, highlighting the tremendous progress and ever-changing capabilities of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA),” the Global Times gushed.

The combination of the symbolic pieces of the scroll uniting, as China wishes to do to Taiwan under communism, and the copious military exercise footage appears to depict the threat of an upcoming invasion of the island nation.

“When the two elves return to their beloved hometown, located near the Fuchun River, after years of separation, they not only fulfill their own dreams but also evoke a shared national sentiment and patriotism in the hearts of Chinese compatriots on both sides of the Straits,” the Global Times claimed. “It also expresses the common aspiration of compatriots on both sides of the Straits to become closer and reunite.”

In reality, polls show that the vast majority of Taiwanese have no interest in being usurped by the Chinese tyranny and do not identify as nationally Chinese. Polls taken in the past five years show that as many as 80 percent of Taiwanese identify as Taiwanese first, a significant increase from as recently as a decade ago. Rejection of China has damaged the political prospects of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang and brought current President Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic People’s Party (DPP) to power for two terms, set to end next year.

“Dreams Come True on the Fuchun River” was published as part of the ongoing celebration of “Golden Week,” the Chinese government’s name for the first week of October, in which the regime celebrates the anniversary of the Communist Party seizing control of China (“National Day”) and the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. “National Day” is celebrated on October 1. This year – the first since the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic began and after the Communist Party ended its repressive “zero-Covid” policy – the regime packed 300,000 people into Tiananmen Square in the early morning hours of Sunday to watch soldiers goose-step in honor of the Party. In an attempt to make the woeful state of the Chinese economy appear more positive, China’s Ministry of Tourism and Culture claimed that it expected nearly 900 million tourists to travel in China this year, many to engage in “red tourism” – visiting sites of importance in Chinese communist dogma.

In Taiwan, anti-communist protesters organized to demand justice for the victims of China’s totalitarian regime on the same day. Many of those protesting were members of the Hong Kong protest movement that arose against communism in 2019 – and was crushed by police brutality and an illegitimate “national security law” that allows Beijing to override the “One Country, Two Systems” policy to detail political dissidents.

Hong Kong activists living in Taiwan stage a protest on China’s National Day in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023. A slogan reads “In addition to Hong Kong, China is doing the same to Taiwan.” (Chiang Ying-ying/AP)

“Freedom and democracy collapsed in Hong Kong due to the infiltration of the Chinese Communist Party,” Taiwan-based activist Fu Tong told Radio Free Asia (RFA) at the protest in Taipei. “We don’t want other democratic countries to wind up like Hong Kong, so we have to stand up and tell everyone about our experience.”

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