Is just such a shock from being in China. Just got harassed and essentially threatened for being a socialist. They searched my bags and commented on my China flag and my little red books and my copy of Blackshirts and Reds. Fucking police state. The security in China is strict, but they don’t give a fuck about your thoughts, whereas this guy was very aggressive about “consequences” for being a socialist.
Pooh isn’t banned (just look up Disney Land Shanghai) and I am pretty sure neither is “tank man”, because PRC television showed the riots live.
There was precisely one Pooh image that was taken down, and that was because of its racist conotations. Not against Xi, he was just compared to Pooh, but against Obama who was compared to Tigger. The text to the image read “Xi is Pooh, Obama is a Tigger.”, I think you get the intention, it’s one letter.
Western propaganda, as usual, left out half the story. Common technique used in the west.
The Hong Kong rioters frequntly use the Xinnie Pooh insult to mock Xi for his skin color and East Asian appearance which expose their anti-Chinese racism and their identity as European diaspora. When I questioned their racist connotation with the Winnie Pooh stereptype, they tried to make irrational excuses or change the topic. The interesting fact is that the self-proclaimed Hong Kong independence advocate used the ban on the Xinnie Pooh racism as the only example of Chinese media censorship. There is also other obvious evidence that the alleged Hong Kong independence movement is an attempts to return Hong Kong under British authoritarian rule like the refusal to talk about the life under British rule, the false association of British colonialism to independence and democratic utopia, the lack of awareness that all their activities in Hong Kong that they openly publicized in media could only exist under a democratic government, and their claim that Hong Kong belongs to sinophobic British people that are rude to Hong Kongers.
There are tons of anti-CPC arguments one can make, especially by looking at past mistakes and ignoring the subsequent work that has gone into rectifying those mistakes. Heck there are various one issue movements in China that push back against some of what the CPC does.
But, seeing as HK protestors cling onto Pooh memes: it’s 100% obvious that it’s a foreign op.
But actually arguing against CPC policy requires knowledge of that policy, westerners have none beyond “Evil! Bad! Muh Freezepeach!”