The United Commission of Fine Arts has asked the creators of a sculpture portraying Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to completely change the statue’s design.

The statue is supposed to be the centerpiece of the National Memorial “Martin Luther King Jr.,” which was planned for a site near the Tidal Basin, between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials.

The lead sculptor, Lei Yixin, is from China and has previously made busts of Mao Zedong.

The commission said the statue made King appear cold and confrontational, standing in a dictator-like, arrogant pose. If one looks through several photos of King, one can only discover the same warm, passionate man, with one arm raised in the air, calling for unity.Not even one photograph depicts King as the cold figure with arms crossed, portrayed by Lei’s statue.

Compared to King, who was "dynamic in stance, meditative in character," the current sculpture "features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character," a letter from the commission secretary, Thomas Luebke, read.

Gilbert Young, an Atlanta sculptor who founded the “King Is Ours” protest movement, said the commission critique of the statue proves that he was right when he initiated the online petition. The petition criticizes the choice of Lei for creating the statue, saying that an African-American artist should have got the job instead. After supporters of Lei said choosing an artist without regard to race and color was in line with Dr. King’s conceptions, Young eventually decided to have a less severe attitude.

"I would have no complaints if this was done in the United States by anyone who knows our culture, like the Asian woman who designed the Vietnam Wall," he said, as quoted by the Washington Post.

The federal commission, whose approval is needed for the project to begin, recommended that the sculpture depict King as a more sympathetic and warm figure, so that he couldn’t be linked to totalitarian regimes.