China's latest stealth fighter might be cloned from the debris of a shot-down U.S. Air Force F-117. Chinese naval warplanes are reverse-engineered Soviet designs, as is its navy's only aircraft carrier.

For decades, China has copied many of its military systems from foreign-made originals. It's a hallmark of a fast-growing power just finding its footing in the high-tech world.

The latest example? A first-person-shooter video game, developed by China's Giant Network Technology Co. and backed by the People's Liberation Army. It's apparently modeled on the U.S. Army–made shooter America's Army.

Like its American counterpart, introduced as a recruiting tool in 2002, Glorious Mission begins with simulated basic training before deploying the player to an imaginary battleground to duke it out in close-quarters combat. News reports show scores of Chinese troops dutifully gaming away in front of their computer screens.

"The game itself looks pretty well-made," one blogger commented. "Graphics definitely on par with at least the [Call of Duty] series."

But there's one key difference between the American and Chinese "shooters." Where the bad guys in America's Army are generic Middle Eastern or Central Asian insurgents and terrorists, the enemy in Glorious Mission is apparently the U.S. military. A TV report offers glimpses of an American-made Apache gunship crashing in flames.

There's another big difference. America's Army has been criticized for having a subtle, propagandistic effect on young players. In Glorious Mission, the politics are anything but subtle. Following training and combat, the game's third stage recreates the "fiery political atmosphere of camp life," according to one Chinese-language news report.

Glorious Mission follows a long line of computer games meant to reproduce some element of the military experience in a particular nation or conflict. Besides America's Army, the Pentagon has also developed so-called "first-person thinker" games for training commanders to make tough decisions in times of information overload.

Islamic group Hezbollah slapped together a crude shooter called Special Force 2, in which the player battles Israeli invaders for the future of Lebanon. NATO has a game for negotiating with pirates.

Amid Beijing's apparent enthusiasm for Glorious Mission, some observers warn of conflating real warfare with mere simulations. "The game content and the values ​​embodied in military thinking ... are very different," one Chinese website warns. "Long-term use is not conducive to military education and training, and may even mislead officers and men."

It could be one of a thousand factors that mislead Chinese trainees into thinking the United States is destined to be China's enemy. And not just on digital battlefields.

Video: CCTV/YouTube

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