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.
This stroll taken together by Obama and Xi became the root of the Pooh memes. 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.
A video posted by Elon Musk that briefly featured Xi Jinping is a risk for any CEO doing business in China.
.jfif)
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