‘The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of a brutal, totalitarian regime,’ a local association said.
Philadelphia raised the flag of communist China at City Hall on Sept. 30 despite criticism and protests from human rights activists and legislators.
The event, co-organized by a group with ties to the Chinese regime, is meant to commemorate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) National Day.
Oct. 1 marks the day the CCP declared its rule after a viciously fought civil war. Over the next few decades, the regime would become responsible for more deaths than both World Wars combined.
The Tibetan Association of Philadelphia organized a protest at the event, calling on the mayor to remove the flag immediately.
“The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of a brutal, totalitarian regime,” Tsering Jurme, president of the local association, said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times.
“This regime is responsible for the persecution and murder of millions, the destruction of thousands of monasteries, and the ongoing cultural genocide of my people in Tibet and the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. To fly their flag here in our Philadelphia city hall is to legitimize terror and betray the dissidents who seek freedom.”
The Campaign for Uyghurs had also written to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on Sept. 26 to urge the city to cancel the event.
“The red flag of Communist China is not a symbol of culture or unity. It is the banner of a totalitarian regime that the U.S. government and numerous parliaments have determined is committing genocide,” said Campaign for Uyghurs founder Rushan Abbas, whose sister and aunt were arrested by the CCP in retaliation for Abbas’s advocacy.
Abbas’s sister, Gulshan Abbas, a retired doctor, was charged with so-called terrorism and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“Under this flag, the CCP has built an extensive system of mass surveillance, separated millions of children from their families, sterilized women, erased religion, and targeted ethnic and faith communities, including Uyghurs, Christians, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and practitioners of Falun Gong. It imprisons innocent people like my sister, fuels a fentanyl crisis that has killed millions of Americans, and spends billions spreading propaganda and infiltrating civic institutions abroad,” Rushan Abbas said in a statement.
This is not the first time Philadelphia, where the U.S. Constitution was signed, has raised the five-star flag of communist China. It held a similar event in 2019, as did Boston and San Francisco. New York City raised the flag in 2023.
