中美用表情包和AI滤镜包装现代战争宣传

The following is a guest post by Karuna Nandkumar, Non-Resident Expert at the Oxford China Policy Lab, and an anonymous contributor.

Competition between the U.S. and China has entered a new domain: meme warfare.

The lines between memes and reality began to blur a long time ago. The Texas judge who conducted a Zoom trial with a cat filter on his face during the COVID-19 pandemic was a bizarre premonition of darker applications to come. Now, Chinese state media is intentionally layering cute animal filters onto ballistic missiles, and the U.S. White House is splicing bombings of Iran with Spongebob clips, as both countries build up (or actively abuse) their military might. These new tactics put a filter of ease and glamour over the harsh realities of war, with lasting consequences.

The Advent of Advanced Military Advertising

In early January, as the U.S. launched the first of what would become a series of increasingly aggressive military actions from Venezuela to Iran, the White House social media team released a warfighting highlight reel. The viewer watches soldiers shoot at air, run through trees, and jump out of planes, while President Trump’s voice warns the world: “If you attack the United States of America, we will crush you without mercy.” The footage is dotted with color-adjusted shots stylized like a video game, with an upbeat action movie-esque soundtrack playing in the background. When the beat drops, rockets blast off.

Just a couple weeks prior, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command put out an AI-generated montage of animals that shape shift into advanced military weapons, pointed towards Taiwan. The video, released during China’s large-scale Justice Mission 正义使命 military exercises from December 29-30, 2025, features sharks that shape shift into submarines, honeybees that turn into drones, and wolves that become robots with an uncanny resemblance to the Unitree Go2 Air Robot dog. It ends with a swarm of humanoid robots joining the march, visually invoking China’s drone swarm tactics, multiplied across ground, air, and sea domains. The final screen reads: “United forces, clustered weapons, cutting off the path to independence / 联武群戈斩 ‘独’道”.

War propaganda is nothing new. In the past, the United States, China, and countries around the world have appealed to honor, patriotism, and action movie-like depictions of strength in their military communications. But animation advancements, and now AI, have made it easier than ever to create video content that combines the real and the manufactured into a seamless product ready for TikTok or Douyin in seconds. Facing publics that generally oppose military intervention abroad, the United States and China have begun experimenting with an AI-enhanced mode of military advertising that makes war seem cleaner, easier, and less serious.

Lay of the Digital Land

The new era of military propaganda is enabled and likely in part motivated by complex social media ecosystems in China and the U.S. Official PLA accounts often release official content on WeChat 微信, the most-used super-app (messaging, social media feeds, payment, etc.) in China, reaching a large swath of society with over 1.38 billion monthly active users. The TikTok equivalent, Douyin 抖音, dominates creative, short-form video content. Xiaohongshu 小红书 (lifestyle and visual curation) and Weibo 微博 (microblogging) make up other niches. Bilibili / 哔哩哔哩 is popular among Gen Z, home to gamer and other subcultures, with Tencent’s QQ / 腾讯QQ retaining a smaller, messaging-focused youth user base. The PLA distributes across all of these in different ways: WeChat is used for official framing and long-form announcements, for example, while meme-native, remixable material is often released on Bilibili and Douyin.

In the U.S., the digital landscape is flatter and more fragmented. YouTube and Facebook are the only platforms used by a majority of Americans in every age group. The White House and Department of War post primarily to X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Facebook, each serving a distinct function. Just 10% of adults use X daily, but since the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk and the dawn of the second Trump Administration, it is known for politically-charged content and press attention. YouTube houses longer-form material, and Facebook retains the oldest and broadest audience across the country. Instagram primarily features reposted White House clips and photos, rather than the video content discussed below. The U.S. government’s approach to the media is also changing rapidly; in June, the U.S. Army shut down and consolidated thousands of military unit-level accounts to promote unity.

China’s Military Cuteness Campaign

Traditionally, Chinese military communications have stressed loyalty and honor, tied to the goal of national rejuvenation after a period of turmoil during the 1900s, from the collapse of the Qing dynasty to the Chinese Civil War. Previous PLA propaganda videos frequently showcased new weapons capabilities. During the PLA’s August 2022 exercises around Taiwan, for instance, the Eastern Theater Command released a music video of soldiers singing, “We’re just waiting to be summoned…towards victory, no surrender, we vow to defend every river and mountain in our motherland“. This was accompanied by footage of missile launches. Individual PLA recruitment videos have paired patriotic framing with displays of military hardware, like in this 2017 video that set footage of military equipment and combat to lyrics about leaving the teenage lifestyle behind to grow up and protect the country. Academic analysis of PLA recruitment ads from 2013–18 similarly found that alongside traditional appeals to recruits’ sense of patriotism and collective duty, contemporary PLA ads also promote military service as a vehicle for personal development and self-fulfillment.

Since last year, however, China’s military has been using playful memes to make weapons and warfare appear “cute”. One tactic pairs military technology or operations with trending soundtracks originally released by popular artists with no connection to the military. In a short video recapping China’s 2025 military parade, Global Times overlaid cartoon peach-pink pig emojis onto Dongfeng (DF-26D) ballistic missiles, the icons swinging left and right across the frame as the missiles march forward. At the end, a burst of 3D hearts and heart-eye emojis floods the screen, in a visual flourish more characteristic of fan art than a weapons showcase. The accompanying soundtrack, “Mommy Said I’m a Pig / 妈妈说我是一只猪”, features simulated children’s voices over a lively drum beat, with lyrics captioned in puffy, candy-colored fonts:

妈咪说我是猪，我是猪就是猪，那也是妈咪养的可爱猪，我妈咪养的好哇，养的圆嘟嘟, 油光水滑毛色亮，是美丽的咪猪

Mommy says I’m a piggy, I’m a piggy and that’s that / But I’m the adorable piggy that Mommy raised / My mommy raised me well, raised me round and plump / Glossy coat, shiny fur, I’m a beautiful little piggy