In all the years I’ve been around, both on the internet & among friends and acquaintances from Asia (incl. Taiwan & China), WtP has been a symbol of resistance against Xi Jin Ping and authoritarianism in China.
I know .ml is heavily tankie in general, but just need a double check from the more reasonable parts of the internet.
Did Xi actually take offense to it? I thought it was just others being overly heavy-handed in their censorship, thus Streisanding the whole thing.
You’re right, it could’ve been a case of preemptive obedience by the censors, based on popularity and face-losing potential of the meme. I vaguely remember reading about him not being pleased. But it’s also been a decade.