China’s Mao statue, the biggest of it’s kind at 120 feet tall and gold in color, has been demolished.

The shocking photos of China’s Mao statue being taken apart made their way like fire burning across China’s popular social media platform, Weibo.

The reason China’s Mao statue was demolished was reportedly lack of approval by the Chinese government.

Some businessmen and residents of local villages scraped together the three million yuan, which is about $450,000, to build the statue.

Chinese gov't orders giant Mao statue demolished. https://t.co/RyX27htIHo pic.twitter.com/Nt0a98kLqC

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) January 8, 2016

This photo provides a little more scale.

China’s Mao statue, in all its giant glory was not to be enjoyed for very long before it was destroyed. It was only completed in December.

The statue was one of controvery, as controversy shrouded the man after which it was formed.

Chairman Mao Zedong brought about the hopeful “Great Leap Forward” economic and social reforms of the mid-1900’s, but not without a price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZJsK3otk_8

Many of China’s people starved to death under Mao’s policies, and most not far from where China’s Mao statue was erected. However, Mao is still credited with uniting China during his three-decade rule.

Of course, this isn’t the only depiction of Chairman Mao in China. Statues of China’s Mao exist all over the country and there is the huge picture that looks down on Beijing’s infamous Tiananmen Square.

In 2013, a 200 million yuan ($30.6 million) solid gold likeness was put up in a memorial hall in Shaoshan.

It unknown if the destruction of China’s Mao statue stems from current President Xi Jinping. In the past, he has praised Mao as a “great figure” and revived some of his philosophies and has copied a Mao-style centralization of government power.

But, he also holds with the party’s 1980s conclusion that Mao made “mistakes”.

What do you think of the destruction of China’s Mao statue?