Two bear statues from a cartoon series have been removed from in front of a China’s securities regulator in Beijing, after they allegedly gave a salute with their middle fingers to the regulator.

The two bears from the Chinese cartoon Boonie Bears were first erected on Sunday at the entrance of Seasons Place, a shopping mall on the Financial Street in Beijing, in order to celebrate Children’s Day which fell on Wednesday this year.

Being set up at the capital city’s financial hub where many financial institutes were based, the bears immediately caught many eyes online as they were posed right to the direction of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) with one of them seemingly putting up its middle finger.

According to online posts, the whole set of statues – including two bears, a hunter and two monkeys – have been relocated to another spot facing the Bank of Communications (BOC), before the two bears were taken out of the set.

The statues were reportedly part of a Bonnie Bear Theme Park in the shopping mall for Children’s Day celebration. Apart from the two on the street, many more could be seen in the mall.

“They [CSRC] had called us afterwards, saying the bear was using an impolite handle gesture, as if it was putting its middle finger up at them … but a bear only has four fingers, it would not give a middle finger,” Zhu Lei, a person in charge of the theme park, told the Beijing Youth Daily, adding that the BOC did not contact them and the bears were sent back to the storeroom to prevent anymore more troubles.

Zhu explained that they chose the Boonie Bears because it is popular among children in China.