Even as Xi Jinping basked in the international media spotlight surrounding successive state visits by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, one domestic meme painted his position as more precarious. A video posted earlier this month to Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese counterpart, offered this scenario:
If you see a tortoise perched on top of a utility pole, there’s no way it climbed up there itself. It fundamentally lacks the capacity to do so: someone else must have placed it there. But it can’t get down on its own, either, so all it can do is wait to topple off. [Chinese]
The account was subsequently banned, and all of its content deleted. The video was widely and immediately interpreted as a reference to Xi, his perceived lack of qualification for his role—he has often been referred to as “the junior highschooler” in a somewhat uncharitable jab at the interruption of his formal education by the Cultural Revolution—and his steady dismantling of established conventions for orderly leadership succession. The meme recirculated in other forms, however, including a video pairing the original audio with a static generated image of the scenario it described. Many of the comments heaped praise on the analogy and its author, while others analyzed the tortoise’s predicament, possible solutions, and the tortoise’s longevity and potential heirs or successors:
信任: When rank exceeds virtue, calamity must follow.
U夹克星: Those born under a bad star spread devastation in their wake.
清半夏: Even high-voltage electricity won’t kill it?
岁月无声: It couldn’t normally have got up there. It must have struck a deal with the Immortals [Party elders]. The pandemic makes this very clear. [Here, “pandemic” 疫情 yìqíng is referred to by its pinyin initials, “yq,” to avoid scans for sensitive keywords]
美丽传说: Would it survive the fall?
于 腾跃: Can we swap it for another one?
prince: It couldn’t get up there itself;
It must have been lifted.
Now it’s up there, unsure what to do,
And starts blindly flailing.
穹隆山人: If it wanted to get down, it’d find a way.
静水深流（敬畏金融）: The tortoise is yelling, “We’re out in front, way out in front!”
东风5c: Grind its bones and scatter the ashes.
🥷✱: Could it lay an egg up there?
荒原: It’s also possible that some other tortoises put it up there.
老酒坊: It’s not that it can’t get down, it just doesn’t want to. 😂
.: Do turtles use Douyin?
小阮: Turtles can live to 100. A scary prospect.
热心市民 李先生: But surely it chose to go up there?
芮昌盛玖十三: Every utility pole has one.
云朵: It’ll wear itself out eventually, nod off against the high-voltage line, and get burned to a crisp.
润锋饸饹面: It’s counting on Western medicine to save it, pathetic.
點石成金: Another name for a tortoise [乌龟 wūguī] is wangba. [王八 wángbā, used in several vivid Chinese insults]
遼寧號: It won’t fall on its own, but it’s pretty exposed up on that perch, someone will knock it down eventually.
沐沐: Tortoises live a long time.
用户 8879442378435: Its support base of second- and third-generation tortoises put it up there.
浮城: Someone put it up there, so someone has to take it down.
乘风的沙: Once the weather clears, it’ll topple.
一鸣..: False idol 🤣🤣
杭州翻新改色王师傅: When you outclimb your ability, the fall will be hard, just wait and see. [Chinese]
Some comments, translated here without endorsement, made sarcastic reference to recent precedent in Venezuela and Iran:
风尘: We need a targeted U.S. strike to eliminate it.
一身反骨: You know why 🔫s are banned? If we had 🔫s we could shoot it down.
广州鲸咚电器: If you don’t have the right tool to hand, all you can do is count on the folks from the next village to help out.
用心珍惜: Only a B2 can fix this 2B [idiot]!
你猜: Only a bald eagle can get it down 😁
大肉丸子君: What do you mean, can’t get down? A targeted strike would do it 😮
星汉灿烂若出其里: A 🦅 could grab it and drop it from high altitude, smashing its shell to bits.
余生长假: A drone could sort it out 🥹🥹🥹
铝单板，铝方通厂家: An F35 could get it down. [Chinese]
Another Douyin video showed a pig in a similar pole-top predicament. A caption reads: “Who is it? How did it get up there? How is it still clinging on up there?” According to an unconfirmed claim on X, the person who originally posted it was detained for 15 days and ordered to delete it.
