Why Winnie the Pooh is making the news in China

What about Pooh?
Did you now Pooh has disappeared from the internet in China.

Disappeared?
Yes. The bear that became popular through the Walt Disney animated films has been blocked by censors.

But why?
Pooh was axed from all social media platforms for being too politically sensitive. As it turns out, he was being compared to China's President Xi Jinping.

To Xi?
Yes. Apparently, the Chinese President looks too much like Pooh.

I don’t get it.
Recently, split pictures of Xi with other world leaders, and Pooh with his friends have been trending. Like in 2013, when Xi visited then-US President Obama to discuss American-Chinese relations. But the headlines that grabbed the most attention were the ones comparing the two presidents to Pooh and Tigger, showing Xi and Obama in almost identical positions.



That was similar indeed!
There was also a juxtaposed picture of Xi and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe with the image of Pooh and his gloomy donkey friend Eeyore. In 2015, a collage that placed a picture of Xi standing through the roof of a parade car next to a picture of Pooh in his toy car became the most censored image in China for that year.

That's funny!
But the humour is lost on the Chinese Community Party. No wonder China operates one of the world's most extensive and restrictive internet filtering and censorship systems — the Great Firewall of China.