A Chinese student at the University of Minnesota was sentenced to six months in a Chinese prison for tweets he posted while studying abroad in the United States.
Luo Daiqing, 20, was arrested in July of last year while the liberal arts major went home after the end of his spring semester, according to Axios.
Chinese courts said that Luo “used his Twitter account to post more than 40 comments denigrating a national leader’s image and indecent pictures,” which “created a negative social impact.”
Among the tweets that mocked Chinese President Xi Jinping were photos of Winnie the Pooh, a fictional character whose round features looks similar to that of the Chinese leader. One tweet also superimposed government slogans over images of Lawrence Limburger, another cartoon character that looks like Xi.
Xi is has been self-conscious about cartoon comparisons. For example, images of Winnie the Pooh, an endearingly jolly bear with a penchant for honey, have been censored across the country.
Luo’s detention shows that China is continuing to clamp down and monitor the actions of its citizens even when they are abroad. It is not clear when Luo is set to be released or if he will be allowed to return to his studies at the University of Minnesota.
