Vandal defaces China`s iconic Mao portrait – Reports

Beijing: A vandal defaced the giant portrait of China`s late Chairman Mao Zedong that hangs over the Forbidden City on Saturday, prompting police to clear the area and adjacent Tiananmen Square, witnesses said. Most of the picture was intact, but workers could be seen in a crane cleaning the lower left part of the portrait, which appeared damaged by soot after the vandal apparently hurled a burning object at it.

Police were swarming the area. Traffic could pass by, but Tiananmen, the symbolic heart of Communist China, was temporarily cleared of the visitors that normally crowd the square on weekends and the tourist-clogged entrance to the Forbidden City was emptied. Police later let visitors back onto the square, which remained under heavy security. An official at the Tiananmen Administration Committee confirmed there had been an incident but said he had no details. Calls to the Beijing city government and the local police went unanswered. Tiananmen is considered especially sensitive since it was the site of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that were eventually crushed by the military. The area usually swarms with plainclothes security men who quickly stamp out any signs of dissent. China`s leadership brooks no challenges to its authority, and defacing Mao`s portrait could meet stiff punishment. Chinese journalist Yu Dongyue was jailed for more than 16 years for hurling eggshells filled with red paint at the Mao portrait at the height of the 1989 demonstrations. He was mentally ill by the time he was released in February 2006. Despite leading the country in a series of violent political movements that led to millions being purged or killed and left the economy moribund, Mao is still revered by many in China and is seen as a symbol of its strength and unity. Bureau Report