Flag of China
A red field with five yellow five-pointed stars in the upper hoist corner: one large star and an arc of four small stars, each turned to point at the centre of the large one.
What the flag means
Official Chinese explanations say red stands for the revolution, the large star for the Communist Party of China and the four small stars for the Chinese people. The designer, Zeng Liansong, intended the small stars as the four social classes named in Mao Zedong's essay On the People's Democratic Dictatorship.
History
In July 1949 a working group asked the public for designs and received about 3,000 entries. Zeng Liansong, from Wenzhou and working in Shanghai, sent in a design that also had a hammer and sickle. It was left off the shortlist of 38 until Tian Han put it forward again. With backing from Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, the hammer and sickle were removed, and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the design unanimously on 27 September 1949. It was first flown on 1 October 1949.
The idea that the five stars stand for five ethnic groups is a common mistake; it comes from the five-striped flag of 1912–1928.
Earlier flags of China
- 1889–1912Qing dynasty: yellow with a blue dragon and a red pearl
- 1912–1928Five horizontal stripes of red, yellow, blue, white and black
- 1928–1949Red with a blue canton holding a white sun with twelve rays
Flags of China's neighbours
Sources
- Wikipedia: Flag of China
- Flags of the World: China
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Read how we research flags in our editorial policy, or report a mistake.
