Just a couple of days after photos of a giant gold statue of Mao Zedong in China's Henan Province surfaced, the mural immediately went missing - as it turns out, local officials decided to demolish it due to embarrassment.
Spanning a height of 120 feet and costing $465,000, as per local media reports, the statue has already been under construction for several months. It picked up international attention when the structure was almost done.
The statue has been in the midst of controversy, as people have noted on social media that in a poor and rural area in China, the money spent on such an extravagant mural could have been better used on education or healthcare.
Meanwhile, other criticisms claimed that there was much historical irony in constructing the statue. As it turns out, the province was one of many that greatly felt the effects of famine due to Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward.
It seems as though the local government decided to appease the community and provide a solution to their concerns by demolishing the statue. Public Security officials and group of men shooed visitors and blocked the road access to statue site - just outside the Zhushigang village.
Villagers continue to claim that the guards surrounding the area were sent to the site by officials of Tongxu County, which encompasses Zhushigang. The local residents in the area believe that the statue was demolished under orders from provincial officials.
However, the New York Times reports that government offices denied any knowledge regarding the demolition:
"A person answering the telephone at the Tongxu County government offices said he did not know anything about the demolition. He referred a caller to the county propaganda department, where the telephone went unanswered. Another person, who answered the telephone at the local Sunying Township, also said he had not heard of the demolition."
People claim that the statue was the brainchild of a local businessman, Sun Qingxin, head of the conglomerate Lixing Group. In addition, Sun is the deputy chairman of the County People's Congress Standing Committee, reportedly a powerful local position.
