Chinese Navy Promo Depicts U.S. Ships

Whoops: Chinese Navy Promotional Poster Accidentally Depicts U.S. Ships

The poster, meant to celebrate China's navy, was riddled with insulting errors.

 
By Kyle Mizokami

A poster meant to celebrate the anniversary of China's navy inadvertently contained several insulting errors, depicting Russian fighter planes, Chinese Air Force fighters, and even U.S. Navy ships. The poster was jeered online by people ready to point out the many errors.

The poster was created to celebrate the 85th anniversary of China's People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and featured China's first aircraft carrier, Liaoning. While well-intentioned, the poster was badly researched. The first error is the presence of Russian MiG-35 fighters on the Liaoning's flight deck. The MiG-35, an updated version of the MiG-29, is not in Chinese military service. There should have been Shenyang J-15 "Flying Shark" fighters instead.



The second screw-up was the presence of three J-10 "Vigorous Dragon" sweeping upward as though having taken off from the carrier. A relatively modern fighter, the J-10 is a considerable point of pride...for the Chinese Air Force. Imagine the Pentagon drawing up a poster with F-16 fighters taking off from the USS Nimitz. Folks in the Navy wouldn't be too pleased.

The third error is by far the most facepalm-inducing. Not only did Chinese propagandists use hardware from the wrong service, they included ships from the wrong navy. Inexplicably, two U.S. Navy San Antonio-class amphibious assault ships accompany the Liaoning. Beijing's graphic designers were probably going for the other big ships in the PLAN's inventory, the Kulun Shan-class amphibious ships. Also known as Type 071, the Kulun Shan class look like the San Antonio class, but definitely are not the same.