A great leap overseas for Mao Zedong descendants?
Privileged children of China's elite often head abroad to study. Mao Xinyu's may do the same
Could Harvard be on the cards for the great grandchildren of China's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong?
Granted, they are currently still 10 and five years old. But their father, Mao Xinyu, said he would be open to the possibility of his children studying abroad.
"We won't stop them from studying overseas providing they are willing and capable," Mao Xinyu said of his son, 10, and daughter, five, on People's Weibo, a state-owned micro-blogging service similar to the more popular Sina Weibo.
We won't stop them from studying overseas providing they are willing and capable
Mao Xinyu, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was in Beijing this week to attend the annual parliamentary meetings, where he is a media favourite - known for his off-the-wall comments and comical behaviour.
His remark about his children is the latest to draw the attention of journalists, who every year chase down the chubby PLA major general in the hope of a good quote. Once in 2010, he was followed around Tiananmen Square for so long that he forgot where his car was parked. Disoriented, he left reporters with only one word about the parliamentary sessions: "Good."
His oddball persona is often the subject of ridicule on Chinese social media. He was said to be "talking nonsense" about China's housing crisis and health care reform during an interview with Phoenix television.
One sarcastic commenter posted underneath a video of the interview: "General Mao has a great gift: the ability to talk for four straight minutes without actually saying anything."