--- title: "China tried to pass off ‘Top Gun’ scenes as its own Air Force footage" description: "China, like the rest of us, really loves \"Top Gun.\" Except the Chinese loved the movie so much more than its actual air force." date: "2022-04-24" modified: "2023-04-18" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/humor/china-top-gun-blunder/" categories: - "Entertainment" - "Movies and TV" tags: - "China" - "Entertainment" - "Movies" --- # China tried to pass off ‘Top Gun’ scenes as its own Air Force footage ![]() Way back in January 2011, the Chinese Air Force's 5th-generation fighter, the J-20, was making its first flight. At that same time, Chinese J-10s were flying an air combat exercise. This exercise featured their planes taking down 1950s-era American-built F-5 fighters with air-to-air missiles, and the whole thing was broadcast on Chinese state television. Except China's featured fighter pilot was actually Maverick from the 1986 classic "[Top Gun]()." ![chinese top gun]() [According to Foreign Policy](), the China-watcher blog "Wolf Warrior" originally wrote about CCTV's newscast right after it aired in China: In the newscast, the way a target was hit by the air-to-air missile fired by a J-10 fighter aircraft and exploded looks almost identical to a cinema scene from the Hollywood film Top Gun. It was pointed out that the jet the J-10 "hit" was actually from the scene where Tom Cruise's F-14 Tomcat shot down an F-5 Tiger II, which was a plane used by the producers to recreate MiG fighters. The Ministry of Tofu then placed the images side by side and commented further on their exact similarities. ![chinese top gun screenshot]() Ministry of Tofu's original post has since been deleted, but not before screenshots of the broadcast we quickly shared throughout the internet, alongside its suspected Hollywood counterpart. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj32BjuSWIQ ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()