In a show of institutional insecurity, China has banned the video game Battlefield 4. This first person shooter (FPS) allows players to seek and destroy a rogue Chinese Admiral and blow up Shanghai along the way. Beijing has cited “national security concerns” about the game and called it an attack on the Chinese and their country. The question is – if China really is a rising super power, then why are they quaking in their boots over Battlefield 4?

The answer lies in understanding the loose foothold upon which the communist party perches in governing China. By its action, Beijing proves that rather than a rising super power, China is little more than a trembling giant, fearful of its imminent demise.









The Game

Battlefield 4 is an (FPS) published by EA arts. The goal of the game is to stop Admiral Zhang, a good communist gone bad, from hooking up with the Russians and throwing China into chaos.

Sounds pretty benign, doesn’t it? Well not to the powers in Beijing, for they had this to say about the game:

–> Portray(s) China in a bad light and purposely mislead(s) Chinese youth

–> Discredit (s) China’s national image

–> Demonize(s) the image of (China’s international)… approach

–> Portrays a negative image of (Chinese leaders, who in a fit of delusion seize power and (attempt a) coup

–> Uses “uncivilized words” that make no sense

–> Is untrue

Another way in which the game besmirches the good name of China and its military is by sending out the message that China is a politically volatile and unstable nation. In addition, Beijing is concerned that the game presents the Chinese PLA not as a professional group of soldiers, but merely militants.