MOFA Backtracks on Winnie the Pooh Tweet|CNN解讀嘲諷北京 台灣"喔熊"聲援推文下架

China has banned movie theaters from showing a new live-action Winnie the Pooh film, "Christopher Robin." Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded by tweeting its support for Winnie, adding "all bears are created equal in Taiwan." CNN noticed this tweet, and posted an article titled "Taiwan Mocks Beijing over new Winnie the Pooh film." MOFA subsequently deleting the tweet.


Disney recently released the film "Christopher Robin," a live-action movie featuring Winnie the Pooh. China subsequently banned the film, and it is rumored the reason is because Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been compared to Winnie, and Winnie has become a symbol of political dissent. On Aug. 7, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a tweet and a photo of Taiwan's mascot OhBear. The tweet said "Make no mistake: All bears are created equal in Taiwan ("Christopher Robin") is screening nationwide." This story was subsequently picked up by CNN, which posted an article titled "Taiwan mocks Beijing over new Winnie the Pooh film." MOFA's first response was to defend the tweet, saying it was meant to highlight Taiwan's freedom of speech. However, on Aug. 8, it deleted the tweet.

This was a very simple way to get our message out, and afterwards we realized that some news media had mistakenly interpreted it. This is why we deleted the tweet late last night.

MOFA claimed it removed the tweet to avoid any misinterpretations. Cross-strait tensions are extremely high at the moment, and scholars say this type of overly light humor is not appropriate for a ministry.

The tweet was meant to be humorous, but it was also provocative and an occasion to vent. If we view sending out this type of tweet under these very subtle circumstances in light of the current cross-strait atmosphere, there is a greater chance it will be interpreted negatively.

MOFA says ministry colleagues are responsible for social media posts, and social media posts are usually more light-hearted anyway. It says it will study the process of this tweet's publication to determine if there were any insufficiencies.