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White eagles and Persian cats: Chinese AI satire of US war on Iran goes viral
China’s state broadcaster shares wuxia-style animation based on the conflict, triggering a wave of user-made spin-offs
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An AI-generated animation by China’s state broadcaster satirising the US-Israel war on Iran has gone viral, triggering a wave of user-made sequels online.
First posted by CCTV on Wednesday, the wuxia-style allegory centres on a war between the “White Eagle” and the “Persian Cat” – clearly representing the US and Iran.
Though it does not explicitly mention the war, the animated short closely mirrors the conflict, which started on February 28, when the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran, killing the country’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several senior officials.
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The video’s key plot points allude to real-world events including air strikes, trade route interruptions and the emergence of new alliances seeking to reduce reliance on the United States and the US dollar.
The animation has gone viral over the past week, with social media users praising its themes, details and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in political messaging.
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Set in a fictional martial arts world, or jianghu, the plot unfolds in the Golden Flow Valley, a chokepoint that holds a critical resource called “black iron essence”, which is used to forge weapons and sustain life and livelihoods.
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