China gets gung ho with new war against Japan ... but only online

The Chinese communist party is reprogramming history with the development of a new internet game that encourages players to slaughter Japanese invaders in simulations of battles of the 1930s and 40s.
"Anti-Japan War Online" is being sponsored by the Communist Youth League, the power base of president Hu Jintao, in order to foster greater patriotism among the fast-growing internet game community. Players choose from a range of 17 Chinese characters - peasant, worker, student, tailor - that they must develop from childhood into strong figures worthy of joining the communist guerrilla forces. Advanced players are promoted to the Eighth Route Army - the militia that served under General Zhu De in a series of successful raids on depots and supply convoys behind enemy lines in the north of China during the second world war. Players are not allowed to take the part of Japanese soldiers.
To distinguish the two sides, developers said they had made the appearance of Japanese soldiers more ugly, but they have scaled down the battle scenes so that the fighting is not excessively bloodthirsty.
Such compromises have been the source of internal quarrels. "Our developers hate Japan, so they want to make the game very provocative, but the team leaders have tried to tone down the violence," said the project manager, Liu Junfeng of PowerNet Technology, a Shenzhen-based gaming company.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2005/sep/02/china.japan?INTCMP=SRCH