SPECULATION ON CHINA’S FLAG

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31177, 29 September 1966, Page 13

SPECULATION ON CHINA’S FLAG

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright! HONG KONG, September 28. In Hong Kong, speculation is growing that China may soon have Mao’s face on its flag, says United Press International.

The talk was touched off by the appearance on the Bank of China of a huge red flag bearing Mao’s picture. Conjecture that this new banner might replace the traditional five-star flag of China arose when the bank hung it out on its headquarters here in preparation for China’s national day celebrations.

While the new flag was hung out, the traditional flags failed to appear at other spots that would ordinarily have them displayed. The national flag that has been the traditional standard of the Communist Chinese

Government since its founding in 1949 has a big yellow star in the centre of a red field, with four smaller yellow stars in the upper lefthand corner. The new Mao flag bears his picture in the upper left-hand corner and is adorned in the centre with four volumes bearing the title "Selected works of Mao Tse-tung.” The cult of Maoism has been carried to great heights during the “cultural revolu tion” purge in China, but so far there has been no indication from within the country that the flag was about to be changed.