US Air Force base commander says video’s release intended to ‘coerce and antagonise’

It coincided with American Valiant Shield military exercises as well as Chinese drills near Taiwan

A Chinese air force video which used scenes from Hollywood blockbusters to portray a simulated attack on the US air force base on the Pacific island of Guam has been dismissed as “propaganda”.

Brigadier General Jeremy Sloane, commander of the Andersen base, linked the video’s release to the biennial US Valiant Shield exercises running near the island from September 14-25.

The video, which was uploaded to the PLA Air Force’s account on social media platform Weibo on Saturday, showed nuclear-capable H-6 bombers striking what appeared to be Andersen, although the base was not directly named.

“I’m always concerned about our ability to protect our service members and their families,” Sloane said on a conference call about the Valiant Shield exercises.

“The video itself – they know the timing of the exercise,” he said. “It’s a propaganda video … although we’re always concerned about the protection of the island and the protection of our people, the video itself is just purely propaganda designed to coerce and antagonise us.”

The Chinese government has not commented on the video, which lifted scenes from Hollywood films like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, to the amusement of Chinese social media users.

According to the Taiwanese air force, the H-6 has been involved in multiple Chinese flights around and near the self-ruled island, which is claimed by China, including last week’s.

Sloane said the Valiant Shield exercise was going on as planned, “because it’s designed to make sure that we’re trained and ready to conduct ourselves across a variety of operations in the Indo-Pacific and to support our allies and partners”.

Guam is home to major US military facilities, including the airbase, which would be key to responding to any conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.