limWinnie the Pooh is banned on the internet in China because the lovable bear, with a crown on his head, was used as a symbol to criticize Chinese president-for-life, Xi Jinping.
Xi really does look like Winnie the Pooh. China’s parliament recently voted to rescind term limits, allowing Xi to be president as long as he wants. The famous “great firewall of China” came to life to censor all references to Pooh to squelch any possible dissent. China also banned the letter “N” because it was being used in the equation “N > 2” with “N” being the number of terms that the president is allowed as “2” has been changed to infinity. Search terms were also banned, including “my emperor,” “lifelong” and “shameless.”
The great firewall of China also censored the term “#MeToo.” I suppose there must be many sexual abusers in China who feel they need broad protection from criticism. The emojis for bunnies and rice, and the term “#RiceBunny” are censored because “rice, bunny” (米兔) is pronounced “mi tu” in Chinese.
Most of the population of the world lives in nations, like China, where cartoonists are not allowed to draw the leaders of their countries. Cartoonists in some of these nations, such as Egypt, have invented little kings or generals to represent their leaders. I admire the passion of those who struggle to speak truth to power where truth is banned.
