BEIJING (AFP).- A Chinese shopping mall is ringing in the year of the cock with a giant sculpture of a chicken that looks like US president-elect Donald Trump.

China has gone cuckoo for the cartoonish pastiche -- complete with orange pompadour -- of the billionaire politician in Taiyuan, capital of the northern province of Shanxi.

The scowling statue is one of many roosters popping up around the country as it prepares to celebrate the lunar new year at the end of January.

With its tiny wings parroting Trump's distinctive hand gestures, replicas of the bird are available on the Chinese shopping site Taobao for as much as 12,000 yuan ($1,700) for a 10-metre version.

Trump has captured the Chinese imagination, and riled its authorities, with his threats to talk turkey about massive tariffs on Chinese exports.

With his crowing tweets on Twitter, including attacks on China's foreign and economic policy, it is no surprise that the Chinese internet wants to give the strutting American leader the bird.

Earlier in the year, Chinese state media circulated a photo of a rooster with a feathery, golden mane that recalled Trump's infamous crest.


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