The long running battle between Chinese censors and one of the world’s most popular bears, Winnie the Pooh, was reignited over the past week.
New reports have emerged the character, created by British children’s author A.A. Milne in the 1920s, had once again been blocked on social media networks in China in an apparent move to limit ridicule of the Chinese president ahead of the upcoming 19th Party Congress.
As AFP reports, images of the portly bear have been used in the past in a meme comparing him to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Winnie the Pooh stickers have also been removed from WeChat’s official “sticker gallery,” but user-generated gifs of the bear are still available on the popular messaging app,” AFP reported earlier in the week.
