Fraternity Red and Revolution Red

Both the flags of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China’s (ROC) have the colour red; however, red represents different meanings on both flags. The colour red on the ROC flag represents “fraternité” originated from the French Revolution. The colour red on the PRC flag is from the flag of The Soviet Union, which the colour red is originally the colour of the flag of La Commune de Paris. There have been many incidents involving the desecration, burning or damaging of the national flag of the Republic of China (ROC, 中華民國) over the years. In Taiwan, some people think that the ROC has ceased to exist since 1949, and that the ROC can no longer represent Taiwan and the KMT (the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang) is controlled by the PRC. They use flag desecration as a means to attack one China policy and the PRC. In this paper, I will explore the reason why the ROC national flag has been targeted in Taiwan, and question whether or not damaging the flag is really a meaningful and successful way to attack both the ROC and the PRC. Furthermore, I will explain how protesters attack the PRC by attacking the ROC flag by way of a discussion of the colour code of both national flags. In addition, I will discuss the meaning of the red on both flags, and I will also explain why an attack on the ROC flag, based on the colour of the ROC and PRC flags, is not a successful way to attack the PRC.

[IVI.CID] 70d7799b-57c7-4e99-9d5e-f5423e9426a3