China censors nine-year-old boy's letter saying President Xi Jinping should lose weight
A report on a nine-year-old boy's suggestion that President Xi Jinping lose some weight was pulled from major news websites after going viral in China.
The suggestion was part of a letter about the space industry that Niu Ziru, a grade four pupil at the Best International School in Zhengzhou, wrote - but never sent - to Xi for a school writing project, the Zhengzhou Evening News reported.
Addressing Xi as "Xi Dada", a close term for an older man, Ziru said China should plan a mission to Mars.
"The United States and Russia - even the European Union and India - are all planning to land on Mars. Let's hurry up," Ziru wrote.
He then changed the topic to what he thought was a "lighter subject" by saying "Xi Dada, you could lose some weight. [You] don't have to look as slim as [US President Barack] Obama. It's all right to look like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."
The letter was not sent but Ziru's father found it amusing and shared a photograph of it on WeChat. The letter was then forwarded by internet users and the Zhengzhou Evening News picked it up and ran a story on it.