Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang has rejected the accusation that he was taunting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This occurred after Su held on to a Winnie the Pooh plushie, while asking China to improve its preventive measures against swine flu, Taiwan-based media outlet TVBS reported.

Video of Pooh plushie being carried

On Feb. 5, Su uploaded a two-and-a-half minutes video to his Facebook fan page primarily aimed at discussing the recent outbreak of African swine flu in China.

The video was presented in the form of a mock cooking show, and appeared to be addressing concerns on the disease.

In it, Su highlighted that swine fever is harmful only to pigs, and that cooking pork properly would kill any off any diseases it might be carrying.

Subsequently, Su took out a Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy towards the end of the video, whereupon the video zoomed in on the bear, with Su stating:

"I ask the Chinese government to please boost epidemic prevention measures, and openly announce any new developments on the matter. Neighbours ought to help, not harm each other.”

Here is the post:

In case you can't see the video:

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://static.mothership.sg/1/2019/02/10000000_2153026634790447_4742865655219901849_n.mp4"][/video]

Winnie the Pooh was simply meant as "soft appeal"

Su's actions attracted both criticism and defence.

A legislator from the Kuomintang party, Fai Hrong-Tai, who criticised Su, was quoted by TVBS as saying:

"It is a ridiculous, ironic meaning. I feel that if he uses such a mentality, the two sides will never be peaceful."

While a legislator from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hsu Chih-chieh, who defended Su's actions, was also quoted by TVBS as stating:

"I think Premier Su just wanted to express the idea that if China doesn’t harm Taiwan’s position, both sides can be brothers."

As for Su himself, he replied in the negative when asked directly by TVBS if he was taunting Xi.

Su added that his use of Winnie the Pooh was simply meant as a "soft appeal" to everyone to be more observant and helpful to one another in the face of the outbreak, which was likely a direct reference to China.

Why was Su appealing to China?

The recent swine flu outbreak has stirred tensions between China and Taiwan.

Multiple organisations in Taiwan are accusing China of failing to manage the outbreak in December 2018, The Diplomat reported.

The DPP has said that Beijing is not proactively sharing information with the relevant Taiwanese bureaus, while Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said that China has not responded to multiple requests to hold bilateral talks on the disease.

Additionally, The Diplomat also highlighted Taiwan's Council of Agriculture stating that no response had been given to any of its five official requests sent to Beijing for updates on the disease.

The Diplomat added that the Chinese government eventually responded on Dec. 26 by stating that Beijing had no obligations to share information on the virus, since Taiwan does not import pork from China.

Other times Winnie the Pooh and China was a touchy issue:

Top image screenshots from Su Tseng-chang Facebook