I think the meme started with a picture of Xi and Obama being compared with Winnie the Pooh (yellow asian) and Tigger (rhymes with ******). It's always been racism.
If a country would go out of their way to ban a cartoon character they wouldn't have an article in the national news outlet about it. Unless they realized a bit later that banning Winnie the Pooh would be seen as very silly.
Oh so just straight up lies and racism… racists get weirdly creative when it comes to their hatred… I don’t understand the thought process but that’s probably for the best.