Comrade Lei's story

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese man selling condoms with the image of Lei Feng, a communist hero model worker from the 1960s, has been told to stop, state media reported Monday.

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Zhang Zhiwen from the Ningbo municipality of eastern China's Zhejiang province put a photo of Lei Feng holding a gun on boxes of condoms he obtained in Guangdong province and advertised them for sale on his website, Xinhua News Agency said.


After media attention earlier this month, the Ningbo Industrial and Commercial Bureau ordered Zhang to stop selling the condoms immediately. Xinhua said the bureau also discovered Zhang's business licence was fake.


Lei Feng was a hero known in almost every Chinese household in the 1960s as a People's Liberation Army soldier who devoted himself to building China. He died in 1962. The public was urged "to learn from Lei Feng" after Chinese leader Mao Zedong praised his hard work and loyalty to the Communist Party.


Branding condoms with famous names is not a new trend in China. In September 2005, the Guangzhou Rubber Group produced two condoms with the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky.


Former U.S. president Bill Clinton is known for his AIDS awareness campaigns in China, where the disease is quickly spreading. He was impeached after trying to conceal an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.


The company gave away 100,000 free Clinton and Lewinsky condoms to promote the brands