Chinese bloggers clash over Mao's legacy on 120th anniversary of his birth

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A clerk shows a wall hanging bearing the image of China's late Chairman Mao Zedong at an antique shop in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:45pm, 26 Dec 2013Updated: 2:50pm, 27 Dec 2013

As the Communist Party celebrates on Thursday the 120th birthday of its late leader Mao Zedong, some of Mao most staunch supporters exchanged fire with his harshest critics in a highly-charged war-of-words over the flaws and merits of the controversial former leader.

But the debate quickly descended into a litany of personal attacks and profanities as anger bubbled over into the heated debate.

On the closely-censored Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform, Zhu Dequan, the editor-in-chief of a government-run news website in Shandong Province known for his conservative views, quickly found himself under fire after he posted a fawning post on "grandpa Mao Zedong."

"Today is the birthday of my grandpa," his post read. "I'd like to offer him a bowl of longevity noodle with pepper and pork."

"I'd like to eat a bowl of noodle in his memory and tell grandpa that we will not allow a country he established to sink," microblogger Wang Xiaoshi said in support.

Wang is the author of a controversial commentary that appeared in many government-run websites in August, lashing out at advocates of Western-style political reform and warning that democracy would leave China in the same "weakened state" as it did Russia.

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