Winnie The Pooh Is Censored In China For Comparisons With President Xi Jinping

The Chinese Government censored ‘Winnie The Pooh’ after the bear is being compared to the country’s President Xi Jinping. The cartoon bear images are being blocked by social media sites Weibo and WeChat.

This is not the first time the beloved character is censored on Chinese web sites since the comparison seems to be an old joke for Chinese internet users.

‘Winnie The Pooh’ is blacklisted in China

The Chinese government routinely censors discussion of weighty issues. Like Tibet, Taiwan, and human rights abuses. Now it’s going for a softer target, Winnie The Pooh.

Internet users in China have in recent days reported problems posting references to the beloved Disney character on social media sites.

Animated GIFs of the character were deleted from the app WeChat. And on Weibo, a Facebook-like social network used by 340 million people a month, users commenting ‘Little Bear Winnie’, the Chinese name for Winnie, get an error message.

The reason behind the ban seems to be the prevention of possible memes ridiculizing the President Xi Jinping, which has happened before.

The crackdown on Winnie the Pooh and ridicule of China’s leaders are strategically timed. There’s an important Communist Party conference scheduled, with several top government jobs up for grabs.

Chinese officials reportedly can block certain phrases to shut down discussions that run against the Communist Party, and they’re doing it to “protect” the image of the party’s most powerful leader.

Recently, authorities were able to virtually remove any existence of China’s top dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize and died last week in custody. He was a professor, a writer and a human rights activist known for his participation in the infamous Tiananmen Square protests.

Long-standing joke

Winnie-the-Pooh has endured previous periods of censorship in China.

A photo showing a meeting between Xi and President Obama provided another popular meme in 2013. This time, a picture showed Winnie the Pooh and his smiling friend Tigger, walking side by side

And in 2014, censors took action when Winnie-the-Pooh comparisons resurfaced after an awkward handshake between Mr. Xi and Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Internet users memorialized the encounter with an image of the yellow bear shaking hands with a gloomy-eyed and uncomfortable Eeyore.

Another moment that was memorialized by social media users was from 2015 when Xi popped out of the top of a limousine. A meme was born when an image was found of Pooh in his very own car.