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The trailer for the latest video game in the world-famous Call of Duty series appears to have been censored days after it featured controversial vision of 1989 anti-democracy protests in China.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the 16th instalment of the popular video game franchise and has been promoted with Cold War-type messages such as the title's slogan, "know your history".
The trailer video released on the official Call of Duty YouTube page on August 20, which ran for a duration of two minutes and 20 seconds, features segments of a 1984 interview with former Soviet KGB informant and defector Yuri Bezmenov.
RELATED: Revisiting the Tiananmen Square massacre, 30 years on
The trailer for the latest Call of Duty video game featured this controversial vision of 1989 anti-democracy protests in China. (Activision - Call of Duty)
In the video, Bezmenov explains how Soviet agents worked to subvert the United States during the Cold War, with advice on how to break down and reform a nation based on the four principals of "demoralisation, destabilisation, crisis and normalisation".
In the trailer, during the 'crisis' segment, vision of people attacking a military vehicle in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — where Communist China cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators — is shown for around a second.
Thirty-one years on from the violence seen in Beijing during those protests, the Tiananmen Square protests remain an ultra-taboo topic in China where there is no public memorial or event to mark the events.
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (Supplied) (Supplied)
On August 21, just a day after the initial trailer was posted, the video appeared to have been replaced on the Call of Duty channel by a one-minute version that had removed the Chinese protests scenes.
Some gamers in China expressed their concern over the swap, saying they fear the new game may be banned entirely in China for the reference to Tiananmen Square, the South China Morning Post reported.
The controversy over the game, which is developed by US-based giant Activision, comes amid a turbulent time in American-Chinese relations — fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic, the issue of Taiwanese independence and the Hong Kong protests.
While there is no clear connection between the Call of Duty trailer and China, apart from the brief Tiananmen vision, the video does play to the tensions between the countries.
"The time bomb is ticking, that every second the disaster is coming closer and closer. The danger is real," Bezmenov says in the trailer on a backdrop of words that say "know your history or be doomed to repeat it".
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is the 16th instalment of the popular video game franchise and has been promoted with Cold War-type messages such as the title's slogan, "know your history".
The trailer video released on the official Call of Duty YouTube page on August 20, which ran for a duration of two minutes and 20 seconds, features segments of a 1984 interview with former Soviet KGB informant and defector Yuri Bezmenov.
RELATED: Revisiting the Tiananmen Square massacre, 30 years on
The trailer for the latest Call of Duty video game featured this controversial vision of 1989 anti-democracy protests in China. (Activision - Call of Duty)
In the video, Bezmenov explains how Soviet agents worked to subvert the United States during the Cold War, with advice on how to break down and reform a nation based on the four principals of "demoralisation, destabilisation, crisis and normalisation".
In the trailer, during the 'crisis' segment, vision of people attacking a military vehicle in Beijing during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — where Communist China cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators — is shown for around a second.
Thirty-one years on from the violence seen in Beijing during those protests, the Tiananmen Square protests remain an ultra-taboo topic in China where there is no public memorial or event to mark the events.
A screenshot from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. (Supplied) (Supplied)
On August 21, just a day after the initial trailer was posted, the video appeared to have been replaced on the Call of Duty channel by a one-minute version that had removed the Chinese protests scenes.
Some gamers in China expressed their concern over the swap, saying they fear the new game may be banned entirely in China for the reference to Tiananmen Square, the South China Morning Post reported.
The controversy over the game, which is developed by US-based giant Activision, comes amid a turbulent time in American-Chinese relations — fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic, the issue of Taiwanese independence and the Hong Kong protests.
While there is no clear connection between the Call of Duty trailer and China, apart from the brief Tiananmen vision, the video does play to the tensions between the countries.
"The time bomb is ticking, that every second the disaster is coming closer and closer. The danger is real," Bezmenov says in the trailer on a backdrop of words that say "know your history or be doomed to repeat it".
. On the bright side, if they manage to include a PLA faction in this game, that would be super sweet. It is extremely tiring playing as either the US or the Russians.
