Has Xiaomi redacted the Communist red star from its mascot?

The hiring of Hugo Barra as Xiaomi’s new head of global operations seemed to confirm that the Chinese phonemaker has global ambitions, and the transition of any firm from domestic player to international player surely requires adjustments in branding.

In the case of Xiaomi, it looks like one of those adjustments might be its mascot’s attire.

In most of Xiaomi’s marketing materials, its cute bunny mascot dons an Ushanka (the “furry Russian hat”) with a red five-pointed star – a hat commonly worn by Communist rebels (the red star is recognized as a universal symbol of Communism).

Xiaomi’s bunny mascot with its beloved hat – and red star.

But earlier today we noticed that in certain photos on Xiaomi’s Facebook fan page for Taiwan (where Xiaomi has been selling phones since April this year), the red star has been either replaced or removed altogether.

In the pic below (posted September 17th), the red star appears to have been photoshopped-over with the logo for Miliao, Xiaomi’s messaging app

Meanwhile, in this advertisement (posted September 20th), the red star looks like it has been painted over.

These revisions aren’t consistent, however. The bunny sports a five-pointed star in the cartoon below (posted September 19th), while the traditional Chinese text indicate that the graphic was intended for audiences outside mainland China.