Removing Mao From Chinese Currency

The world Mao Zedong foisted upon the Chinese people has disappeared through the introduction of capitalism in China, and soon money bearing his visage will be a relic as well:

There is little evidence these days of the massive Mao Zedong personality cult that once dominated China.

But in Chinese wallets and purses, the former Communist leader still commands a presence, on everything from the smallest to the biggest banknote.

But a number of delegates to an advisory body at the country's parliament - National People's Congress - want to change that.

They are suggesting that on some notes, Mao should go and that Deng Xiaoping and Sun Yat-sen should replace him.

The delegates say China owes its decades of economic growth and rising international status to Deng Xiaoping's reforms of the late 1970s

Those reforms undid much of the collectivisation imposed by Mao.

But the banknotes proposal is a long way from becoming law and it is also unlikely that Deng Xiaoping would have approved.

He ended the mass production of Mao badges and watches and was strongly against any cult of personality.

If you've ever been to China, you know that even with a halt in production there are still millions of examples of kitschy Mao paraphernalia and Communist agitprop. Unfortunately, the strictures on freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. introduced and reinforced under Mao's tutelage have not disappeared, even though the party he carried to predominance has faltered recently.

Chinese Communists Losing Their Mao-Jo