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Flag of the People's Republic of China

Name	Wǔ Xīng Hóng Qí ("Five-Starred Red Flag")
Use	Civil and state flag and ensign.
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	September 27, 1949
Design	A large yellow star to the left of an arc of 4 smaller yellow stars, in the canton of a red flag.
Designed by	Zeng Liansong
Use	War flag.
Proportion	4:5
Design	As above, with the arc of stars replaced by a subscript reading "eight one".
Use	Naval ensign.
Proportion	4:5
Design	As above, with 5 horizontal stripes alternating blue and white at the bottom.

The flag of the People's Republic of China, the "Five-Starred Red Flag (五星红旗 in pinyin: wǔ xīng hóng qí)", was designed by Zeng Liansong, an economist and artist from Ruian (瑞安 ruì ān), Zhejiang. He designed it in response to a circular distributed by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in July 1949, shortly after they came to power. Out of more than 3,000 entries received for the design competition, Zeng's was chosen after being nominated as one of the 38 finalists. Mao Zedong hoisted the first flag on a pole overlooking Tiananmen Square on the day of its unveiling.

The design went through several changes and was finally approved by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on September 27, 1949 at their First Plenary Session. The original design plans contained several alterations in comparison with the modern-day flag.

Three of the original flag candidates showed the large golden star (with no additional stars anywhere else) along with one, two, or three yellow bars (horizontal) at the bottom of the flag, representing the Yangtze, Huang He (Yellow River) and the Zhujiang River (Pearl River). They were not chosen by the officials, however, because the very presence of these bars appeared to suggest the idea of a tearing or splitting of the nation.

The final design was a red with a large yellow five-pointed star and four smaller yellow five-pointed stars (arranged in a vertical arc toward the middle of the flag) in the upper hoist-side corner. The color red symbolizes the spirit of the revolution, and the five stars signify the unity of the people of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. The flag was officially unveiled in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949, the formal announcement of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The current design uses red as its background and bright yellow for its stars. The red background symbolizes the blood shed throughout the revolution. The yellow color mainly symbolizes the Chinese people as great and powerfully strong People who know more than 500 characteristics in their language and was partly inherited from the previous flag color of Soviet Union which was also a combination of red and yellow, in which case the yellow symbolizes the brightness of the communist future.

The larger star symbolizes the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the four smaller stars that surrounds the big star symbolize the four classes of Chinese that were considered unitable by Mao at that historical time (from one of Mao's work: On The People's Democratic Dictatorship); these are the Workers, Peasants, Petty Bourgeoisie (i.e. Small Business Class), and National Bourgeoisie (i.e. Chinese non-governmental businessmen). It should be noted that the view of the bourgeoisie classes was changed in the political movements afterwards. Readers should be aware that there are alternative interpretations, such as five stars representing the five biggest ethnic groups or the four stars representing the classes not exactly like the four mentioned above. Unfortunately, these interpretations have no historical basis. The one important point to note here is that the bigger star represents the Chinese Communist Party which is claimed as the leader of all.

Two other designs featuring the large star with four smaller stars were also discussed. One of them showed four stars in a vertical line below the large golden star. This was rejected out of fears that it would suggest class incompatibilities and struggles. The other flag was very much the current-day PRC flag, but had the hammer and sickle in red, inside the largest golden star. The Communist icon was removed because the PRC would be a Maoist leadership, not a complete mirror of a Communist state. The hammer and sickle in the flag, were it to survive, would also further complicate relations with the other four stars it represented (two smaller stars already represented the workers and the farmers; if the hammer (workers) and the sickle (farmers) were added once again to the flag, there could well be class inequalities and too similar to the flag of Soviet Union.)

The usage of the flag is governed by the Law of the National Flag of the People's Republic of China. It is often raised to the music of the "March of the Volunteers," the national anthem. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China defines the flag in Article 136.

Construction sheet

• List of Chinese flags
• Emblem of the People's Republic of China
• Flag of the Republic of China
• Red Flag
• Flags of the PRC's Special Administrative Regions:
  • Flag of Hong Kong
  • Flag of Macau

• China at Flags of the World
• Official specifications and standard sizes of the flag.