Taiwan's Punching Pooh badge goes viral

STORY: These Taiwanese air force badges have gone viral

They show an angry Formosan black bear

punching Winnie the Pooh, representing China’s President Xi Jinping

Taiwan was formerly known internationally as Formosa

(Alec Hsu / Military memorabilia shop owner)

(Mandarin) “The idea behind the creation of this badge was to use Taiwan's Formosan black bear as a symbol to make an encouraging badge for our national armed forces. Since they surrounded Taiwan in August of last year, China’s military has been incessantly creating problems for our military and our national security. This is why I wanted to create this badge to cheer on our troops.”

The patches are seen as a defiant symbol of Taiwan's resistance to Chinese war games

China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory

and has not ruled out taking the island by force

“These (badges) are actually already a very common thing abroad, and ‘we are open 24 hours’ means always being alert, just like our national armed forces are protecting our country 24 hours a day. And ‘fighting for freedom’ means all of us are constantly fighting for freedom, for this piece of land and for our country. I think this is a very good slogan to boost morale, I think it’s very important.”