See also: BBC surrenders to the Mullahs’ propaganda campaign

Here's a disturbing news item, buried between the Daily Mail's stories of Olivia Culpo's bikini, Leo di Caprio's Greek summer mansion, Khloe Kardashian's workout routine, and what assorted celebrities chose to show up in at Comic-Con:

Eagle-eyed viewers of the Top Gun remake trailer spotted that the Japanese and Taiwanese flags have been removed from the main character's jacket.  

The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel dropped on Friday this week to great excitement among fans of the original 1986 movie.

But soon afterwards fans noticed that the patches on the iconic leather jacket worn by star Tom Cruise no longer have the flags of Taiwan or Japan.

The new film, which is being produced in partnership with a Chinese producer, shows that somehow, those Taiwanese and Japanese flags have disappeared from the iconic jacket worn by Top Gun pilot Tom Cruise. The Daily Mail has before-and-after pictures here.

Or, you can see the altered patch at about the 2:05 minute in this ABC News trailer here:

Here's a screen shot:

Basically, Hollywood's film partnership with China now means that any symbol of patriotism or representation of American interests now is subject to China's notorious censors. The big commercial Hollywood film has been altered, for clearly political purposes.

After all, heaven forbid a Chinese audience see a glance of a Taiwanese or Japanese flag -- even on the back of a white devil's flight jacket.

Which is fairly disturbing, given that films are considered art, and now we are seeing even American artistry altered per the whims of Red China's censors. Not only will Chinese not get to see the patch on the jacket, neither will Americans.

In the interest of 'balanced' reporting, the Daily Mail goes on to quote a military expert as saying the patches aren't actually important. Unwittingly, the man reveals that the deed was even worse then, because why should censorship be going on for supposedly trivial things? Actually, it makes the censorship even worse.

Hollywood seems to have sold its soul to China and now its censors are getting busy.

I attended a conference on China and Hollywood a few years ago, a joint project of University of Southern California's famous film school and excellent Chinese studies department, and that was exactly what they were getting worried about. Well, it's on now. And with China money going into Hollywood, it's not just social media censorship of disfavored projects going on now, it's the projects themselves. They're being censored by China, same as if they were produced in China.

We know China has been pouring money into Hollywood, buying up film studios and mass media. It's been going on slowly but for years. And Hollywood, which is under duress as theatre goers diminish and audiences get disgusted with celebrity big mouths, is hurting for venture capital, which is why the Chinese cash is coming in.

Someone needs to be making a stink about this. If an American movie, with American characters, representing the American military, cannot display themselves as they historically are, what future are we looking at in Hollywood movies? Apparently, the Chicoms are already calling the shots.

Image credit: ABC News YouTube screen shot