Nixon library will be target of Mao protest 美媒体报道“全球逐毛日”

Students from the People's Republic of China pose next to a statue of Chairman Mao, right, at the Richard Nixon Library & Museum in 2005. Guan Peng, left, and Wang Luo Luo of Shanghai, were visting Southern California as part of a student "Youth Summit" to mark the 25th anniversary of Nixon's peacemaking journey to China and the signing of the Shanghai Communique, which outlined a newer, more open relationship between the US and China.

BRUCE CHAMBERS, FILE PHOTO

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/library-nixon-mao-2586329-leaders-chen

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Nixon library will be target of Mao protest 美媒体报道“全球逐毛日”

Chinese-American man plans to protest statue of communist leader in Yorba Linda.

By JESSICA TERRELL
The Orange County Register
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YORBA LINDA – A statue of deceased Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong at the Nixon Presidential Library &Museum is the subject of a protest planned for Thursday, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

The statue has been in the Hall of World Leaders since the Nixon Presidential Library opened. Kai Chen – a Chinese-American organizing the protest – is the first person to launch a complaint about it, said Sandy Quinn, assistant director of the Nixon Library &Birthplace Foundation.

"To even mention Mao with democratic leaders such as Churchill and Golda Meir in the same breath is truly an insult to human intelligence and offensive to all the freedom-loving people in the world," said Chen, who emigrated from China in 1981 and lives in Los Angeles.

Chen's complaints to the city of Alhambra in 2007 resulted in the removal of a painting of Mao from a Chinese New Year exhibit at City Hall.

Nixon was the first U.S. president to visit the People's Republic of China, in 1972, and he selected Mao to be represented at the library among other influential world leaders who he worked with during his presidency, Quinn said.

"Having several figures in the world leaders' (section) doesn't mean we endorse their policies," Quinn said.

At the end of the protest, Chen plans to present a statue-removal petition with signatures he has collected to library officials.

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