Blog post renews West Point debate

The question whether the United States Military Academy at West Point paid homage to Lei Feng, a model Chinese soldier from the Mao Zedong era, may remain unsolved.

Anecdotes about West Point cadets attempting to know Lei have become the focus of public attention from time to time in past decades. Now, the topic of the military hero is stirring heated discussion again because of the confession of a former Xinhua News Agency journalist on his microblog on Sunday.

Li Zhurun, the former journalist, said he read in foreign media on April Fools' Day - April 1-in1981 that cadets at West Point were learning from Lei, and that they even sang a popular Chinese song extolling him.