He is a beloved fictional bear described as having ‘very little brain’ who lives on a diet of honey and is best friends with a piglet.

But when a trivial comparison was made between China’s President Xi Jinping and Winnie the Pooh, the country’s strict censorship laws swung into action.

A picture of Xi Jinping walking with Barack Obama at a California summit was published on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

It was placed next to an illustrated image of Winnie the Pooh and his pal Tigger, who have been drawn in a similar pose to the politicians.

Comments that were posted on the blog were removed and the picture was deleted by website monitors.

Despite being removed form the site, the images went viral, with critics saying over-zealous censors had misread the frivolous comparison.

The Communist Party’s censors are known for interfering with even the most minor of government criticism on social networking sites.

The blogger, called Nicaragua Rabbit posted the two pictures on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, on Tuesday.