Over the years Pooh hasn't really managed to foster a camaraderie with Chinese officials and the reason is its looks.

Strangely enough Pooh looks like Chinese President Xi Jingping and the similarity hasn't gone down well with Chinese officials.

China has been largely resistant about a host of issue that (tries to) 'belittle' them.

The slightest provocation has been dealt with a strict hand even as human rights activists took notes from a distance and cried foul.

The first meme trolling Xi appeared in 2013.

It was based on a photograph of Obama and Xi.

The image was juxtaposed with a slide of Pooh and Tigger, characters from creator A A Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh'.

Slowly it took the internet by storm and like a true viral material spread like wildfire.

Soon people developed an interest and other Pooh images resembling the Chinese President slowly made it to the internet, much to Beijing's dismay.

China has been battling Xi-lookalike-Pooh since 2013, but has decided that enough is enough, calling curtains on the soft target in July 2017.

The recent move has irked the international community, who have accused China of not only being resistant, but also 'humourless'.

"The regime is a little bit humourless at the best of times, but it's even more sensitive at the moment about any kind of apparent ridiculing of the Chinese party leaders," a scholar was quoted as saying by the ABC.

image: twitter.com/shanghaiist