Thousands of people have signed a petition to the Australian authorities to call off two concerts in honor of late supreme Chinese leader Mao Zedong, amid growing concerns over the lengthening reach of the Chinese Communist Party’s "soft power" influence overseas.More than 3,000 people had signed the petition on change.org by Friday expressing “deep concern” over two planned concerts honoring Mao Zedong in Sydney and Melbourne in early September. “Mao was personally responsible for massive tortures and persecutions resulting in the unnatural deaths of over 70 million Chinese people,” the petition, posted by a group called the Embrace Australian Values Alliance, said. Other accounts have put Mao's body count at around 30 million. Read more
