China’s state broadcaster China Central Television has used a five-minute AI-generated animation to frame an allegory for the war in Iran, portraying the United States as an aggressor in a martial-arts style fight, according to an Associated Press report.
The animation, released on social media by CCTV, casts a white eagle in regal attire as a stand-in for the United States. In the short, the eagle unleashes an evil laugh before his army attacks a group of Persian cats draped in black cloaks that represent Iranians, who then vow to fight after losing their leader and close off a crucial trading route.
The report described the clip as “metaphor-rich,” touching on themes of injustice, revenge, and “worldly wisdom,” and said it is part of a broader pattern of AI-generated animation and other slick digital content used by China’s state media to skewer the U.S. and its president.
Andrew Chubb, a senior lecturer at Lancaster University whose studies include political propaganda, said the Iran-war short “It’s hardly even like propaganda — it almost seems more just a historical fiction dramatization of the situation,” framing the work as entertainment-like rather than overt messaging.
China’s push builds on years under President Xi Jinping to increase the country’s ability to spread its messages globally and gain more influence over world affairs, while seeking to counter Western narratives that Beijing views as biased or even derogatory, the report said. It also described the move as taking place amid an intensifying global information war in which the U.S. is trying to increase its own efforts to counter foreign anti-American messaging.
In that context, the report said State Department cables warned that foreign messaging campaigns carried on digital platforms by state-controlled media “pose a direct threat to U.S. national security and fuel hostility toward American interests.” It also said the Iranian side has used its own AI-generated memes to mock the U.S. and Trump.
Chinese officials and media strategists described in the report said the newer formats are designed to reach audiences who have turned away from stiff, slogan-filled messaging. The report said state media had increasingly embraced web-style language, popular music, patriotic films, and other formats intended to draw younger viewers by using entertainment rather than directives.
Shi Anbin, director of Tsinghua University’s Israel Epstein Center for Global Media and Communications, linked the approach to audience engagement, saying, “It is a new way for Chinese mainstream media to engage global Gen Z audience and social media users to understand Chinese standpoint and viewpoint of international affairs.” He said AI-generated “infotainment” is likely to be more effective at persuasion than traditional messaging.
The report also said the CCTV short gained additional overseas attention after an X user subtitled and posted it, reaching more than 1 million views in only a few days, and prompting praise from Chinese viewers for translating a complex geopolitical conflict into an easier story.
Beyond the Iran-themed animation, the report said the state media approach has included other AI-generated projects targeting the U.S. with similar symbolism, such as an AI-generated music video by Xinhua in February lampooning U.S. threats about Greenland and a March short about Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit that showed a bald eagle caging small birds “in the name of security,” with the eagle saying, “Sometimes, security comes with a little control.”