The person responsible for selling condoms carrying a depiction of Lei Feng, one of China's most famous faces from the 1960s, has been told to close his online sales website, local authorities said Monday.

Zhang Zhiwen, from Ningbo in east China's Zhejiang Province, used a photo of Lei Feng holding a gun on the boxes of condoms he obtained in Guangdong Province and sold under the brand "Taotao".

After media attention earlier this month the Ningbo Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce investigated Zhang's business and discovered his license was counterfeit, according to an administration spokesman. They ordered Zhang to stop selling the condoms immediately.

Denying previous reports that the administration had previously been consulted about the business, the spokesman said they’d never permit the use of public images for condom sales and vowed to punish such behavior in the future.

Lei Feng (1940-1962) is known to almost every Chinese household as an ordinary solider who became a model of virtue in the early days of the People's Republic. Late Chairman Mao Zedong called on the nation to learn from Lei's loyalty to the Party, generosity and diligence. The "spirit of Lei Feng" has inspired generations of Chinese.

Only last week connections of Chinese NBA star Yao Ming voiced their disapproval over one company's plan to register "Yao Ming" as a brand of sanitary pads and diapers. Yao's fans and his business associates, Team Yao, argued that it damaged the player's image.

The condom registration has already won preliminary approval from the trademark bureau of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the final decision will be made in three months. Three quarters of the people who posted their opinions on the Internet are against the registration, saying the trade bureau should not grant its approval.

Early in July a man named Li Zhenyong from Fujian Province wanted to register the trademark of China Central Television (CCTV) for condoms but failed. However, another condom maker has been using "Phoenix" which looks similar to and sounds the same as the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.

(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2006)