An AI clip of Xi walking in Winnie the Pooh robes may seem lighthearted, but Beijing has shown it deems the cuddly bear comparison as a a red line.
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images and Xinhua/Ding Ting via Getty Images
On Monday, Elon Musk tweeted an AI-generated video of the world's biggest figures sashaying down the aisle of a fashion show.
The billionaire probably saw it as amusement instead of a political statement — given how an AI version of him took to the stage in latex undies at one point.
Two seconds of the clip would likely be considered with more gravity in China, the biggest market for Musk's Tesla outside the US and the home of its Shanghai Gigafactory.
In the video, Chinese leader Xi Jinping appears in robes splashed with red and cartoon designs of a yellow bear.
It's a striking reference to Winnie the Pooh, the cuddly, honey-loving resident of the Hundred Acre Wood — that Xi has been reported for over a decade to severely dislike.
The paramount leader was in 2013 the subject of memes comparing him to Pooh, due to a photo of him walking next to then-President Barack Obama, whom people said resembled Tigger.
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP via Getty Images
The reference has been a faux pas on China's moderated internet for years, largely because the bear became a common way for people to mock Xi or complain about him without mentioning him by name.
The actual character of Pooh is not overtly banned in China. Pooh features in two rides at Shanghai's Disney Resort and can still be found in social media posts about toys and children at play.
Yet one would be remiss to underestimate how strictly China considers Winnie the Pooh to be a red line — and how far it will go to punish references to him.
In 2018, the country denied the release of the film "Christopher Robin" and blocked HBO after it aired an episode of John Oliver ridiculing Xi's apparent sensitivity about the bear.
Pooh continues to be an insult used by opponents of Xi's government, like in 2023, when Taiwanese people rallied around a picture of a Formosan black bear punching the plump ursine.
To be sure, it's unclear if any Chinese official will bother addressing a mere two seconds of a fun video posted on foreign social media by an American billionaire.
China, for its part, has been trying to court international business to rekindle its floundering post-COVID economy.
But on X, Chinese dissidents and critics still frequently use Pooh references. A Pooh post is a risk for any CEO doing business in China, where Musk met Premier Li Qiang in April.
The billionaire was said to have struck a deal to roll out autonomous driving software in China, where other EV makers have been quickly rising to compete with Tesla.
Meanwhile, the country contributed to 22% of Tesla's total revenues in 2023, and 42% of its revenue outside the US, per annual SEC filings. The EV maker's Shanghai factory also runs on a 50-year lease with the local government, under the condition of contributing over $300 million in annual taxes.
Still, Musk — who is vocal on free speech issues — has a penchant for taking public risks, like when he spoke at a conference and swore at advertisers on X, accusing them of trying to blackmail him.
Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
