The Chinese government is blocking social media posts including the image of A.A. Milne’s beloved Winnie the Pooh, apparently due to constant comparisons between the cartoon bear and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to multiple reports.
The Guardian reported that references to "Little Bear Winnie," Winnie the Pooh's Chinese name, were bringing up errors on Monday for some social media users in China.
Authorities didn't explain the decision to block to bear, according to The Guardian. However, BBC News reported that bloggers' comparison of Pooh's image to that of the country's president prompted the clampdown.
"It is not only that China's censors will not tolerate ridicule of the country's leader, they do not want this beloved children's character becoming a kind of online euphemism for the Communist Party's general secretary," according to the news site's China blog. "In other countries such comparisons might be thought of as harmless enough and some might even think that having Winnie as your mascot could even be quite endearing: not in China."
The New York Times reported that government censors have been battling with Pooh bear since at least 2013, when an image of Xi and then-President Barack Obama drew comparisons to Winne the Pooh and Tigger. Since then, multiple social media users have compared Pooh to Xi.
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