New Netflix show sparks outrage in nationalist China - with viewers claiming Americans trying to make the country look bad: 'You only understand political correctness!'

A Netflix fantasy drama series set in the backdrop of the Chinese cultural revolution about a 'mysterious threat headed for Earth' has been berated by audiences in China. 

The new show, 3 Body Problem, has received mixed reactions on Chinese social media since Netflix released it on March 21 - with many nationalists saying that the American corporation is trying to make the communist state look bad. 

Netflix is unavailable in China, but some viewers have been able to watch the show through virtual private networks (VPNs) or find pirated versions.

Since its release, the show - which was created by the same people who made Game of Thrones - has received a 78 percent rating and an 81 percent average audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Chinese social media users have since accused the show of being political, and one user wrote that the cast was chosen to 'appease political correctness.'

The eight-episode drama, which is based on an epic novel written by Liu Cixin, debuted at number two on Netflix. Cixin is China's most celebrated sci-fi author. 

3 Body Problem begins with a scene depicting Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. 

The revolution began in 1966 and lasted until Zedong's death in 1976.

The show includes a scene in which a physics professor is beaten to death by his students at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The professor allegedly taught lessons that involved the opposition or resistance to a revolutionary movement.

He was also denounced by his wife, a colleague, and his daughter, Ye Wenjie (Zine Tseng), an astrophysics prodigy who witnessed the horrible events.

The show then fast forwards to nearly 60 years later in modern-day England, where Detective Da Shi (Benedict Wong) is investigating the apparent suicides of renowned scientists.

While Wenjie is recruited by officials to search for extraterrestrials, Shi and five other scientists become involved in doing actions to help the survival of humanity.

Although the show is now receiving social media backlash, the novel on which it is based also found itself in political controversy years ago.

Cixin and journalist Jiayang Fan had a conversation for the New Yorker in 2019 and discussed the author's opinion about the internment of Uighurs Muslims in camps built in Xinjiang province.

Fan asked Cixin if he preferred that Uighurs be 'hacking away at bodies at train stations and schools in terrorist attacks' and said that 'the government is helping their economy and trying to lift them out of poverty.'

The journalist wrote: 'Duplicated government propaganda so exactly that I couldn't help asking Liu if he ever thought he might have been brainwashed.'

In September 2020, US senators - Marsha Blackburn, Rick Scott, Martha McSally, Kevin Cramer and Thom Tillis - wrote a letter to Netflix and accused the company of 'normalising' the Chinese government's brutal incarceration of millions of Uyghur Muslims.

'These crimes are committed systemically and at a scale which may warrant a distinction of genocide,' the letter read.

'Sadly, a number of US companies continue to either actively or tacitly allow the normalisation of, or apologism for, these crimes. The decision to produce an adaptation of Mr Liu's work can be viewed as such normalisation.'

Social media users in China have not stopped criticizing the show for its seemingly political themes.

'Netflix you don’t understand ‘The Three Body Problem’ or Ye Wenjie at all!' a user wrote on Weibo. 

'You only understand political correctness!'

'History is far more absurd than a TV series, but you guys pretend not to see it,' another social media wrote on Douban.

X users from other countries have given the show positive and negative reviews. 

However, the poor reviews have primarily criticized the show as a whole rather than its connection to politics.

'I suffered through 3 Body Problem, the woke trash that it was. The fake alien invasion conspiracy theory looking better,' wrote an X user.

'They jumped to that plot line almost right after the opening credits, no mystery, no character development.'

Other Netflix users have given their approval and have called the show 'dope' and 'great.'

'I liked it, plus it helps you understand why using military force in 1989 was justified,' another person wrote.