Beijing: China’s military on Sunday released an animation depicting the journey to reunite two halves of a torn scroll across the Taiwan Strait, according to CNN.

This comes as a reference to the country’s longstanding goal of “reunification” with the democratic, self-ruled island.

The Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) released the animation to mark National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and is the latest short film to capitalize on nationalist sentiment over historic Chinese treasures held overseas.

China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan, home to 24 million residents, as its territory — despite never having controlled it. It has long vowed to “reunify” Taiwan with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.

At the very centre of that threat sits the Eastern Theater Command, the wing of China’s enormous military force that handles operations in the Taiwan Strait, and which routinely conducts military exercises including simulated precision attacks on the island, as per CNN.

Two cartoon elves in the animation represent the two halves of the famous artwork “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains,” by Song dynasty painter Huang Gongwang.

The pieces of the "The Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains", one of China's best-known ancient paintings, are kept separately in museums in China and Taiwan.

Painted in the 14th century, the scroll was damaged by a fire in 1650 and split into two — with one part now kept at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and the other at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

As a result, the scroll has long been seen as a living symbol of the division between China and Taiwan.

The animation shows one elf, representing the scroll piece in Taipei, deciding to visit her counterpart in Hangzhou, reminiscing on when he had “come to visit me 12 years ago” — a reference to when China loaned Taiwan its half of the scroll for a joint exhibition of the complete work in 2011, during a brief period of warmer ties between the neighbours.

On the Taipei elf’s journey to Hangzhou, she passes by Chinese military aircraft and maritime vessels, marvelling at much of the hardware on display and exclaiming: “So cool!”

At the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, she is met by the second elf — and the pair visit the ongoing Asian Games, hosted this year in Hangzhou, arriving just in time to see the Taiwan team introduced as “Chinese Taipei” during the opening ceremony.

For years, China has marginalized Taiwan in the international community, resulting in the island being blocked from international bodies such as the World Health Organization. Even when it is allowed to participate, it is under the moniker “Chinese Taipei” — including at the Olympic Games and various sporting competitions, to considerable resentment among many in Taiwan, as per CNN.

The animation ends with the two elves re-joining both halves of the scroll.