Last week, an AI-generated video produced by Chinese state media symbolizing the US-Israel war with Iran by featuring Persian cats and bald eagles went viral, netting nearly a million likes within hours, and filling up comment boards.

The video offers a window into how Beijing interprets the Iran conflict to shape domestic public opinion, and the core message fed to the Chinese public aligns with a commonly used narrative that the US is an aggressive, declining hegemon, while China remains a steady, peaceful rising power.

The viral video produced by CCTV features the aggrieved "Persian cats" seeking vengeance against the arrogant "white eagle," which dominates a desert realm called the "golden flow valley." The eagle forces the realm to trade scarce resources, called "black iron essence," exclusively using "white eagle gold tickets." 

After the eagle assassinates the Persian cat leader, an asymmetrical war of attrition ensues where the eagle expends expensive "anti-air golden needles" to shoot down cheap "wooden birds."

The thinly veiled symbolism is rooted in Beijing's overall political messaging since the war began, and this narrative is amplified across China's media apparatus.

"From the beginning, Chinese officials have been very clear in describing the war as both illegal and a threat to global stability," said W.A. Figueroa, an assistant professor of history and international relations at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

"The image presented is one of a steady, engaged, and diplomatic China in contrast to an aggressive and unpredictable United States," he added.

China's media strategy

In sharply worded commentaries, the official Xinhua News Agency has argued Washington's true goal is an "Iran without sovereignty," depicting the war as "not so much for 'security' as it is for hegemony."

On domestic social media, these grand geopolitical themes are chopped into highly digestible, nationalistic snippets.

"Jing Si You Wo," a popular influencer on the Chinese short video app Douyin, reaches a massive audience on social media. Recent videos have gleefully declared that the US has "chickened out" in the face of Iranian resolve, and that Iran's greatest weapon is the sheer willpower for "mutual destruction."

The Chinese military's official Douyin account also published a video using high-definition satellite imagery to rigorously analyze US deployments in the Gulf.

The post drew over 6 million likes, in a potential sign China's domestic population is eager to study the playbook and tactics of the US military.

Alicja Bachulska, a China analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW that CCTV's AI video highlights an evolution in Chinese state propaganda by filtering it through a popular fantasy martial arts genre known as "Wuxia."

Bachulska observed that utilizing artificial intelligence makes official narratives "much more palatable" and "fun" for local audiences compared to dry TV coverage.

By cleverly drawing on deep-rooted nostalgia for 1980s Hong Kong kung fu cinema tropes, state media seamlessly embeds geopolitical talking points into popular culture.

China builds its narrative vis-a-vis the US

Figueroa, whose research includes contemporary China-Middle East ties, said the political calculations behind China's narrative on the conflict in the Middle East are part of a broader, long-term strategy.

He said the Chinese government must constantly counter Washington's accusations that China is a destabilizing force.

"This allows them to display not just to the world but to their own people that actually China is doing well. China is moving forward and China is a stabilizing force," he said.

Bachulska said that Chinese political elites view the world through the prism of an existential rivalry.

"All global developments ... are being filtered through the lens of how China can use these developments to strengthen the narrative that the US is a neo-imperial power and that it is a discredited actor," she said.

Ultimately, Beijing proudly offers its own geopolitical solution to the global chaos it eagerly highlights.

The "cat and eagle" animated short concludes with Chinese martial arts wisdom: "The ultimate essence of martial arts lies not in wielding weapons, but in stopping violence."

And as savvy merchants bypass the white eagle's trade blockades, the video includes a veiled strategic promotion of China's Belt and Road Initiative as the ultimate path to escaping US economic hegemony.

Edited by: Wesley Rahn