CHINA:CHINA'S GREATEST Communist icon, chairman Mao Zedong, will be dropped from six million new 10 yuan (93 cents) banknotes to mark the Olympic games, which start one month from today, the central bank said. CLIFFORD COONANreoprts from Beijing.
The Great Helmsman will be replaced on the new cyan-coloured note by the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, which is more in keeping with the image of progress and prosperity China is trying to show as the games approach.
Above the stadium - the main venue for next month's games - is the "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing" emblem for the 2008 Olympics, set against the backdrop of the Temple of Heaven, one of China's best-known landmarks.
The reverse side of the Olympic note features the famous ancient Greek marble statue of a discus-thrower, Discobolus, portraits of athletes and the numerals "2008".
Despite the ravages of the Cultural Revolution and the disastrous social agricultural reform known as the Great Leap Forward, Mao is still an icon in China, considered by the ruling Communist Party to be "70 per cent good, 30 per cent bad". His portrait still gazes out fondly over Tiananmen Square in central Beijing.
Portraits of the leader of the 1949 revolution that swept the Communists to power adorn all modern banknotes in China.
During Mao's rule from 1949 until his death in 1976, banknotes featured more traditional socialist realist fare - determined workers, muscled farmers and clear evidence of China's successful modernisation like factories or rustic classical scenes.
He first appeared on the bank-note in 1990, alongside three other iconic leaders.
There are periodic calls to have his face removed from the currency, including occasional motions tabled at China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress. Some delegates would like Mao to make room for other leaders such as economic reformer Deng Xiaoping and Sun Yat-sen, but none of these calls is taken too seriously.
In 2000, Mao gave way to a dragon for millennium 100-yuan (€9.30) banknotes, but again only temporarily. Seven notes bearing his image were issued in 1999, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic.
In a country where fake bank-notes regularly surface and where every 100-yuan bill is checked for authenticity, watermarks and other technologies would be used to prevent counterfeiting of the notes, the central bank said.