http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/forbidden-city-forbidden-act/2007/05/13/1178994992633.html
Vandal sets fire to Mao icon Beijing May 14, 2007 Workers repair the damaged portrait. Photo: Reuters A vandal has damaged the giant portrait of late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong that hangs over the Forbidden City. "The picture was on fire on the left-hand side," said a diplomat and a photographer who were driving past in a taxi late on Saturday afternoon. They said they saw flames and black smoke billow from the bottom of the portrait as an estimated 100 police scrambled to put out the fire and keep crowds at bay. Police detained Gu Haiou, a 35-year-old jobless man from Urumqi, capital of the north-western region of Xinjiang, over the incident. "When we jumped out of the taxi, police immediately told us to leave," one of the witnesses said. "We did not see what happened to start the fire." They said that about 15 per cent of the portrait had been burned and blackened. Workers could later be seen in a crane cleaning the lower left area of the huge portrait, which appeared to have been damaged by soot. Traffic could pass by, but Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of communist China, was temporarily cleared of the visitors who 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 tight security. The portrait is periodically replaced with an identical copy. Tiananmen Square is considered especially sensitive since it was the site of the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed by the military. The area usually swarms with plain-clothes security who quickly stamp out any signs of dissent. China's leadership brooks no challenges to its authority, and damaging Mao's portrait could incur a 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 protests. He was mentally ill by the time of his release last year. Despite leading the country in a series of violent political movements, Mao is still revered by many in China and is seen as a symbol of its strength and unity. AGENCIES [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
