Ever the gentleman, Vladimir Putin is censored in China

It was a warm gesture on a chilly night when Vladimir Putin wrapped a shawl around the wife of Xi Jinping while the Chinese president chatted with U.S. president Barack Obama. The only problem: Putin came off looking gallant, the Chinese summit host gauche and inattentive. Worse still were off-color jokes that began to circulate about the real intentions of the divorced Russian leader — a heartthrob among many Chinese women for his macho, man-of-action image.

China is traditionally conservative on public interaction between unrelated men and women, and the public show of consideration by Putin may provide fodder for jokes, which the big boss probably does not like.

Zhang Lifan, Beijing-based historian and independent commentator

The incident at a performance linked to this week’s Asia-Pacific summit originally was broadcast on state broadcaster CCTV and spread online as a forwarded video. But it was soon scrubbed clean from the Chinese Internet, reflecting the intense control authorities exert over any material about top leaders while also pointing to cultural differences over what’s considered acceptable behavior in public.

Asia-Pacific Putin