By Huang Shaojie

A Mao Zedong biography by a Party-owned publisher was banned for containing a defamatory quote against a Communist spy, whose kin will receive 30,000 yuan ($4,501) in compensation.

The founder of the People's Republic was quoted in a 2006 book A True Mao Zedong: As Remembered by Those Close to Him as saying to one of his entourage in 1949: "Keep an eye on the secretary of Fu Zuoyi. That is a very bad man, a Kuomintang secret agent."

Fu was the north China commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army during the siege of Beijing. He paid a visit to Mao after surrendering Beijing to Communist troops on January 22, 1949.

But Fu's secretary, Yan Youwen, was actually spying for the Communists. "The quote dragged Yan's name in the mud," said King & Capital Law Firm attorney Zhang Yanfeng, who represented Yan's five daughters during litigation against Central Party Literature Press.

The case was ruled at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court in the daughters' favor in September. "The defendant was not able to prove that Mao actually said that," Zhang told the Global Times Wednesday.

The court granted the daughters' claims for compensation and a ban of the book, according to an anonymous source who spoke to the Global Times.

The publisher has stopped printing and distributing new copies, but has not issued a recall, according to the source.