The national flag of the People's Republic of China is a Chinese red field with five golden stars charged at the canton. The design features one large star, with four smaller stars in an arc set off towards the fly. The five stars and their relationships to each other represent the unity of the Chinese people, symbolized by four smaller stars, under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), symbolized by the large star. The red represents the Chinese Communist Revolution. It is commonly called the "Five-star Red Flag" in China.
China's first national flag, called the Yellow Dragon Flag, was adopted by the Qing dynasty in 1862, featuring an Azure Dragon on a plain yellow field with a flaming red pearl in the upper left corner. On 10 January 1912, after the Xinhai Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China, the Five-Colored Flag was adopted as the national flag by the Beiyang government, featuring five colored stripes representing the five major ethnic groups in China. After the Kuomintang overthrew the Beiyang government in the Northern Expedition, a flag consisting of a red field with a blue canton bearing a white disk surrounded by twelve triangles was adopted as China's national flag.
The Five-star Red Flag was adopted as the national flag of China upon the proclamation of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. The flag was designed by Zeng Liansong, and approved by the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The flag was first hoisted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on a pole overlooking Beijing's Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1949, at a ceremony proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Current design
Symbolism
According to the official interpretation of the flag, the red background symbolizes the Chinese Communist Revolution. The five stars and their relationship represents the unity of the "whole Chinese people" led by the Chinese Communist Party. According to China Daily, the orientation of the stars "represent all hearts of millions of the people toward [the] great Communist Party of China".
At its conception, the larger star symbolized the CCP, and the four smaller stars symbolized the four social classes of China's New Democracy mentioned in Mao Zedong's "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship": the working class, the peasantry, the urban petite bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie. The 1992 National Flag Law and the 1991 National Emblem Law describe the stars as "symbols of the People's Republic of China" generally, and do not define what they stand for specifically.An official youth study guide describes the stars as the "CPC and the people of all nationalities around the country."
It is sometimes incorrectly stated that the five stars of the flag represent the five largest ethnic groups in China: Han, Zhuang, Hui, Manchu, and Uyghur. This is generally regarded as an erroneous conflation with the "Five Races Under One Union" flag, used by the Beiyang government of Republic of China, whose different-colored stripes represented the Han, Hui, Manchus, Mongols and Tibetans.
Construction The construction sheet for the national flag was published on 28 September 1949 by an order from the Presidium of the First Plenary Session of the CPPCC. in Chinese The document "GB 12982-2004: National flag" was released by the National Standardization Administration on 16 January 2004. Construction sheet StandardThe flag is split into 4 sections, with the top hoist part of the flag being a grid of 15 by 10 units. The center of the biggest star is placed at 5 units from the hoist and 5 units from the top of the flag; the diameter of the biggest star's circumscribed circle is 6 units. Of the 4 smaller stars, the first one is centered 2 units from the top of the flag, 10 units from the hoist; the second one is centered 4 units from the top of the flag and 12 units from the hoist; the third one is centered 7 units from the top of the flag and 12 units from the hoist; the fourth one is centered 9 units from the top of the flag and 10 units from the hoist. The diameter of each small star's circumscribed circle is 2 units. Each of the top points of the 4 smaller stars are rotated such that they point towards the center of the larger star.
Size specifications The Law on the National Flag notes five possible sizes that could be made for the national flag. Article 4 of the National Flag Law directs the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government to authorize companies to make any copy of the national flag. Besides five official sizes for flying on flagpoles, there are another four smaller sizes for other purposes, such as decoration on cars or display in meeting rooms.
Size 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9Length × width (cm) 288 × 192 240 × 160 192 × 128 144 × 96 96 × 64 66 × 44 45 × 30 30 × 20 21 × 14
Color specifications The colors of the national flag are stipulated in the document "GB 12983-2004: Standard Color Sample of the National Flag", and promulgated by the Standardization Administration of China. The colors are in specified in CIE 1964 xyY10 color space under standard illuminant D65. +Standard color sample of the national flag Fabric Luminance Y10 Color coordinate Allowable error margin x10 y10 Synthetic fiber Red 9.4 0.555 0.328 All are Gold 41.2 0.446 0.489 Silk Red 12.3 0.565 0.325 Gold 32.4 0.450 0.463 Cotton cloth Red 9.2 0.595 0.328 Gold 33.0 0.467 0.463 Sleeve White 78.0 – – The luminance Y10 must not be less than 78
For computer display, the National Flag Law defers to standard PNG images posted on the National People's Congress website. The specific colors used, in the sRGB space of the PNG file, are:
Red Yellow RGB 238/28/37 255/255/0 Hexadecimal #EE1C25 #FFFF00HSV 357/88/93 60/100/100
Unicode The Flag of China is represented as the Unicode emoji sequence and .
Protocol
The Law of the People's Republic of China on the National Flag was passed by 14th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 7th National People's Congress on 28 June 1990 and came into effect starting 1 October 1990. The law set regulations on how to make the Chinese flag, what it looks like, where it can be flown and how it can be flown. The law also states that the national flag is "the symbol and hallmark of the People's Republic of China" and that everyone "shall respect and care for the National Flag".
Display
The National Flag Law stipulates the flag must be hung daily at the Tiananmen Square and Xinhuamen, the locations of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Council, the Central Military Commission, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the National Supervisory Commission and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, airports, ports, railway stations and other ports of entry and border or coastal defense posts.
The flag should be hung at all departments under the Party Central Committee and all local Party committees, all departments of the State Council, the standing committees of local people's congresses, local people's governments, local and special people's courts, local disciplinary inspection committees and local supervisory commissions, local and special people's procuratorates, local committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and all democratic parties and people's organizations, or property belonging to said places or institutions on working days. National flags should be raised in full-time schools except during vacations and Sundays. Schools are required to display the national flag every day except during winter and summer vacations and rest days, while public cultural and sports facilities are mandated to display the flag on the days they are open. In addition, the flag is displayed in public squares, parks and other public venues, as well as by residential buildings during important national holidays.
The flag displayed in the aforementioned conditions are raised in the morning and lowered in the evening. A Flag Raising Ceremony may be held during displays of the national flag, where the March of the Volunteers, the national anthem, shall be played or sung. Participants should stand at attention facing the national flag and salute. The ceremony is to be held daily at the Tiananmen Square, while schools hold the ceremony once a week except during holidays. When raising or lowering on an upright flagpole, the flag should rise and fall slowly. When raised, the flag must be raised to the top of the pole. When lowered, the national flag must not be allowed to touch the ground. When flown at half-mast, the national flag should first be raised to the top of the pole, and then lowered into a position where the distance between the top of the flag and the top of the pole is one-third of the total length of the flagpole; and when it is lowered, the national flag should first be raised to the top of the pole before lowering. The flag is not required to be raised in severe weather conditions. Damaged, faded or substandard flags must not be used, and the flag must not be displayed upside down or hung upside down.
The national flag of China takes precedent over other flags of the state. The national flag is to be in front of any other flags when raised or carried in a procession. Additionally, when the national flag and other flags are displayed at the same time, the national flag is to be placed in a central, higher, or prominent position. Since 2017, the CCP flag has taken precedence over the national flag during military parades, while the national flag has taken precedence over the PLA flag. When the national flags of two or more countries are displayed, protocol is regulated by the regulations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Central Military Commission is authorized to provide methods for the display and use of the national flag by the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police.
The Ministry of Transport, in accordance with the National Flag Law, formulated the Regulations on the Management of the Raising of the National Flag on Ships, stipulating that Chinese-flagged ships of 50 gross tons and above, ships navigating outside China's territorial waters and in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as official vessels, shall fly the Chinese national flag daily; foreign-flagged ships entering the inland waters, ports, and anchorages of China shall also fly the Chinese national flag daily. The regulations also specify the size of the national flag that should be flown by ships of different lengths. Among Chinese airlines, only Air China is permitted to display the national flag on its aircraft.
During the Shenzhou 5 mission, the Five-star Red-flag was carried into space for the first time. In 2020, the Chang'e 5 deployed the Chinese flag on the moon, making China the second country after the United States to do so. The flag was made from a composite material to withstand the Moon's harsh environment without fading or deforming. In 2024, the Chang'e 6 displayed the Chinese flag at the far side of the Moon for the first time.
Half-mast The Chinese flag must be lowered to half-mast as a token of mourning when any of the following people die:
President of the People's Republic of China Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Premier of the State Council Chairman of the Central Military Commission Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference People who have made outstanding contributions to the People's Republic of China. Those who have made outstanding contributions to the cause of world peace or human progress.