Mao you see it, Mao you don’t: towering 3m yuan golden statue of Communist leader ‘demolished’ days after internet coverage

A gargantuan gold-painted statue of Communist China’s founding father Mao Zedong has suddenly been demolished, apparently for lacking government approval, state media said Friday, days after images of it went viral.

Images of the statue of a seated Mao towering some 37 metres (121 feet) over empty fields in the central province of Henan made worldwide headlines this week.

But the 3 million yuan ($460,000) structure has been destroyed, the People’s Net news portal cited local officials as saying, adding the reason was “unclear”.

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The website is linked to the People’s Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

It cited reports from unspecified media as saying the likeness of the man who ruled China with an iron grip for nearly three decades until his death in 1976 “was not registered or approved” by the local government.

Pictures circulating online — which could not be immediately verified by AFP — showed a gaping hole in the rear of Mao’s massive golden torso, and his head shrouded in black. Local officials could not immediately be reached.

Construction was reportedly funded by several local entrepreneurs and finished in December after nine months of labour, the HMR.cn portal said this week.