"The appeal and jail sentence is a form of institutional violence and political suppression – it has ‘created’ the youngest group of political prisoners since the handover."

Local netizens reported that police officers at check points are randomly searching residents' devices to see if they have installed the surveillance app.

Chinese Communist Party media are concerned about the game's storyline, which they say "subverts Chinese history."

Crackdowns on entertainment news outlets indicate that controls are not only directed at the foreign enemy, but at thoughts and activities seen to go against “socialist core values”.

Pro-government groups are waging a campaign against the game, and internet censors have predictably gone into overdrive.