Yay, Top Gun is back! Did you see the trailer for the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, which “dropped” last week? It shows Tom Cruise, as everyone’s favourite flying ace Maverick, going supersonic in jets. It shows Tom Cruise tearing across the screen on a motorbike. And it shows Tom Cruise, crucially, sporting that same iconic leather flying jacket that Maverick has, apparently, been wearing solidly for 33 years.

However, there is just one difference. The patches on the back of Maverick’s jacket that used to show the flags of Japan and Taiwan (both US allies), have been removed and neatly replaced with inoffensive geometric shapes. This has happened, allegedly, because the flags were mildly offensive to Chinese sensibilities — Taiwan is one of the