Mao’s personal plane up for sale

china: Mao Zedong’s personal airplane has been put up for sale by the owner of a shopping centre in southern China to make more space for parking.

Wang Zhilei, general manager of property developer Ridong Group in Zhuhai, a city in southern Guangdong province, confirmed the company had put the 46-metre-long plane up for sale.

“There are not enough parking spaces, so we decided to sell the plane,” Wang told AFP.

But he would not comment further on prospective buyers or on the price Ridong was seeking for the plane, and referred to a report by the Southern Metropolis Daily, a Chinese newspaper.

Wang told the newspaper that it was shop owners that had asked for the plane — which was purchased by the company in 1999 and put on display near the shopping centre — to be moved to make way for more parking spaces.

The jet is one of three that the Chinese airforce bought from Pakistan in 1969, according to the report.

One was given to Mao, the founder of modern China, the other was given to Lin Biao, Mao’s heir apparent, and the third was reserved for the military. But Lin’s plane crashed in neighbouring Mongolia when he fled from China in 1971 after a failed coup to oust Mao.

The two remaining planes stayed in service until 1986, at which time Mao’s personal plane was put on display in an airport in Beijing’s suburbs until it was bought by Ridong Group.

Beijing, Sunday, AFP