The Issue with the PLA is that there is some units that has outdated equipment, gear and training.
PLA is still renewing.
QBZ-191 service rifle family
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
PLA is still renewing.
I'm talking strictly PR here. They literally could've shown the PAP or anyone who's already spent a year or two on the weapon as we've seen in the last couple pages. People actually know how to use the gun correctly but instead, they have decided to show a bunch of new recruits who makes the new rifle look absolutely terrible. The video does not instill a good idea of how much of an improvement the gun really is and unlike us here who knows a thing or two about guns, many in China don't. The recruit's recoil control was so bad that many in Chinese media are saying it shoots 7.62, like wtf? Even the Japanese are able to put our military in a better light than these idiots.
FYI the video I'm talking about:
From my observations for years, I don't think the PLA, the CPC, and the PRC government views propaganda with the same kind of philosophy as westerners or even the ROC. I don't think they want to appear as a menacing, violent, or flashy. It is not to say that Chinese does not admire strength and martial prowess.
In my opinion, I think it has to do with the influence of Qing dynasty thinker Zeng Guofan (曾国藩), and his idea of "弃圆求缺", which means "abandon perfect fullness and embrace the existence of natural blemish/imperfection". I think this philosophical and aesthetic tradition affected the entire Chinese civilization after him. We see it everywhere in Chinese culture today. Including things like the common saying "土共（土鳖）不土，战斗力五", or the so-called "朴素美学".
And I think this is a very good and down to earth culture.
That has literally nothing to do with the military. We are talking military here buddy and you know the Chinese definitely do not follow this ideal when it comes to it. Let us just call bad PR what it is and not sugarcoat it.
Sure, I guess you could call it subpar PR. I did tried to be humorous with that post. lol
Oh, sorry I couldn't tell.
It's okey, it's my lacking in literary prowess.
The reason is actually pretty simple and not involving some kind of philosophical bs:
It is safe to do that confidential wise.
Of course the PR can show a bunch of elite units using the new rifle and make it looks cool, however, the elite units have a lot of stuff they don't want to show to the public, even including their faces. So the safe way is to show some new recruits with new rifle, which is safe, under control, and even boring enough to make sure nothing interesting showed. That's simpler. I know it's sometimes absurd to keep a new rifle confidential, but that's reality in china military PR.
I would add. If im not mistaken, they said when they posted the video that the main purpose was to showing how he gun sounds like. They didn't put music and tried to minimize other ambient sounds. Maybe they felt that using footage of inexperienced trainees would let them show some characteristics of the gun without "showing too much".