Chinese mall celebrates upcoming ‘Year of the Dog’ with Trump-like statue

BEIJING -- A giant dog statue that looks curiously like President Donald Trump has been placed outside a shopping mall in China, marking the upcoming "Year of the Dog" in the Chinese zodiac.

Sitting in the center of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province in northern China, the 22-foot statue has golden eyebrows and hair, some of which is flipped up in the front, as well as a red collar and an index finger pointed toward the sky. A smaller version has been installed inside the mall.

While the statue has attracted attention on social media, a staff member at the mall told ABC News that it was not intended to look like Trump.

Many Chinese media outlets, including the state-run Global Times, called the statue the “Trump Zodiac Dog."

The mall, Fashion Walk, posted on social media that the dog statue was nicknamed “Meng Chuang,” with “Meng” meaning “cute” and “Chuang” pronounced similarly to “Trump” without a "p."

Last year the same mall featured a rooster statue that seemed to resemble Trump to mark the Year of the Rooster. It hasn't been removed, according to posts on Chinese social media.

The Year of the Dog starts on Feb. 16, 2018. Trump was born in 1946 -- another Year of the Dog.

According to a mall employee, an in-house mall designer came up with the idea of the dog statue. The designer did not reply to requests for comment from ABC News.