Pressure is mounting on Beijing to respond to a neo-Maoist campaign spreading throughout the country that aims to bring two of the Great Helmsman's most outspoken critics to trial.
Utopia (or wyzxsx.com), one of the mainland's leading neo-Maoist websites claims to have collected thousands of signatures calling for the 'public prosecution' of economist Mao Yushi and writer Xin Ziling , a retired People's Liberation Army officer, for their comments on China.
Supporters of the campaign are encouraged to lodge 'citizens' complaints' with local public security authorities. The most high-profile signature obtained so far is reportedly that of Liu Siqi, widow of Mao Anying, Mao's son who died during the Korean war. Fan Jinggang, who runs the Utopia site, said this was only the beginning, with a second phase due to start on June 15 when a citizens' complaint would be formally delivered to the National People's Congress, the mainland's parliament, and to the municipal legislature.
Fan did not say whether the campaign had any official backing, but said citizens had ways of exercising their rights and defending Chairman Mao Zedong was one of those constitutional rights.
What sparked the campaign was Mao Yushi's review of Xin's book on Mao Zedong, called The Fall of the Red Sun, that was published on the economics information website Caing.com last month.
The 5,000 character review - it can no longer be read on Caing.com, but it is widely available online - is a damning account of Mao Zedong's policies.
'He is not god, and he will be removed from the altar, divested of all the myth that used to shroud him and receive a just evaluation as an ordinary man,' Mao Yushi wrote.