Aston Villa's notorious owner Dr. Tony Xia got himself into another controversy after quoting Chinese communist revolutionary, leader, and founder Mao Tse-Tung in trying to express his opinion about the club's potential transfer targets.

Xia, who is a well-known Chinese businessman that currently owns the Recon Group, recently posted in his social media account a quotation from Chairman Mao to drive his belief that the judgment of the club's fans is better than professional scouting reports.

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The 39-year-old tweeted on Friday, "Quotation from Mao: We must have faith in the masses! Truly fans' viewpoints are even better than scouting reports!" which included a photo of Mao's quote that said "We must have faith in the masses and we must have faith in the Party. These are two cardinal principles. If we doubt these principles, we shall accomplish nothing," via Metro.

The tweet was met with criticism and hostility from Villa fans, which prompted him to respond with another tweet to clarify his message.

"My family suffered from the culture revolution era. Nothing with political issues but the quotation about masses," Xia said in a follow-up tweet.

The Mirror indicated that the fans' anger came from their perception of Mao, which was said to be labeled as "a dictator like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin for a systematic perpetrator of human rights abuses, responsible for an estimated 40-70 million deaths through starvation, forced labor, and executions".

Supporters were said to be concerned that the team owner is following the principles of a known dictator to run the said football club.

At the moment, the Villans, who were demoted to the Championship this season, are looking to add another striker to their roster and are reportedly pursuing Hull City's Abel Fernandez and West Ham United's Enner Valencia.

Xia was present during West Ham's 1-2 loss to Astra Giurgiu in a Europa League match at the London Stadium on Thursday to observe Valencia before he made the tweet that the fans' opinions are important to him when making his decisions.

TagsChina Football, China Football News, China football 2016, Tony Xia, Aston Villa, Premier League