A PR video for China’s airforce was slammed on social media after users questioned why the world’s second largest military power spliced clips from Hollywood blockbusters Transformers and The Rock into its own propaganda material.

The video, with 4.72 million views on Weibo and crafted by the Propaganda and Culture Centre of the PLA’s Air Force, parades its medium and long-range H-6 bomber.

With a soaring score and high-altitude action shots, the video shows Chinese airmen launching an attack on an island base, resembling US facilities in Diego Garcia and Guam, then returning from the successful sortie.

But social media users in China were quick to spot some glaring plot holes. The missile sequences were plucked from three Hollywood movies, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, The Rock and Hurt Locker. “It turned out that our dream of great power was pieced together by editing American film clips,” said one user.

“We promote the domestic military aircraft using US Hollywood movie clips, why bother?” added another, while a third said, “It’s our nation’s promotional video, why don’t we use our own images?”

China slams support for Taiwan independence bid

China’s foreign ministry ramped up its rhetoric over the self-ruled island of Taiwan on Monday, describing any support for its independence as “doomed to fail”, and threatened retaliation against US diplomatic visits to the island.

Meanwhile, Taiwan said it scrambled fighters and deployed anti-missile systems on Monday after Chinese military jets entered its air defence zone for the fourth time in five days.