Taiwan badge showing Winnie the Pooh being punched features on air force uniform
Sales of a patch showing a bear punching Winnie the Pooh have reportedly spiked in Taiwan after an air force pilot was pictured wearing one.
Xi Jinping has long been subject of memes and pictures comparing him to the Winnie the Pooh character, with China's sensors previously banning searches for the bear on social media.
Just last month, public screenings of a horror featuring the bear were scrapped in Hong Kong, sparking discussions over increasing censorship in the city.
In 2018, the film 'Christopher Robin' also featuring Winnie the Pooh was said to be denied a release in China.
As tensions between democratically-governed Taiwan - which Xi Jinping's administration claims should be its territory - and China rose further in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the badge first went on sale last year.
Alec Hsu designed the patch, according to Reuters, and saw a spike in orders after Taiwan’s military news agency published a photo of the patch on a pilot's arm.
“I wanted to boost the morale of our troops through designing this patch,” said Mr Hsu, who owns Wings Fan Goods Shop.
He said he has ordered more patches to meet the increased demand, which has come from military officers and civilians.
Taiwan's Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US - its de-facto embassy - added to the patch's popularity with a tweet asking "where we can get a patch like that" and hailing it as "guaranteed to be best sellers."
The patch shows a Formosan black bear, which is seen as a symbol of Taiwanese identity, holding Taiwan’s flag and punching Winnie the Pooh.
The slogan is 'Scramble!', which refers to the island’s pilots scrambling to the air over the past three years as China sends aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone – a self-declared buffer that extends beyond the island’s airspace.
Taiwan’s air force told Reuters that while it does not “particularly encourage” its members to wear the patch, which is not a part of their uniform, it “will maintain an open attitude” to anything that raises morale.
Tensions continue to rise
It comes as China’s military declared it is “ready to fight” after completing three days of large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan.
The People's Republic said it simulated sealing off the island in response to the Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen’s trip to the US last week.
The drills were meant as a warning to self-governing island of Taiwan, which China views as a breakaway province.
China's military said: “The theatre’s troops are ready to fight at all times and can fight at any time to resolutely smash any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ and foreign interference attempts."
The exercises were similar to ones conducted by China last August, when it launched missile strikes on targets in the seas around Taiwan.
US forces, meanwhile, on Tuesday launched their largest combat exercises in decades with the Philippines in waters across the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan - which means 'shoulder-to-shoulder' in a langaugse spoken in the Philippines - will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel.
It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as Joe Biden's administration strengthens an arc of alliances to better counter China.
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