It is the near future, and China prepares to strike back after being attacked, loosing off ballistic missiles to take out an aircraft carrier and destroying an airfield as a fighter jet takes off.

The enemy is not named in the animation, released late last month by Chinese internet giant Tencent, but the ship looks a lot like a U.S. Nimitz-class carrier, while the destroyed fighter is clearly a Lockheed Martin Corp F-22.

It may be fantasy, but the clip – viewed more than 60 million times so far – reflects a mood of rising nationalism and confidence among the Chinese public and military.

An assertive China under President Xi Jinping now believes its military has the technology to at the very least make the United States think twice before undertaking any military adventures in what China sees as its backyard.

… Richard Bitzinger, a regional security analyst at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said while there was nothing technologically new on show last week, he was concerned at potential Chinese military over-confidence.

“Just because they are developing capabilities that are complicating operations, especially for the Americans, doesn’t mean they have won the war already,” he said.