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Philadelphia officials raised the flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at City Hall on Tuesday.
The ceremony marked the CCP’s Oct. 1 National Day and involved a co-organizer with ties to Beijing’s regime. The event whitewashes a violent legacy of mass killings, religious crackdowns, and cultural destruction that began when Mao Zedong seized power in 1949.
What is Philadelphia, the city where our Constitution was signed, thinking?
Good grief.
Be informed, not misled.
Outside the event, protesters from the Tibetan Association of Philadelphia demanded that the city take down the banner.
“The red flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not a symbol of culture; it is the emblem of a brutal, totalitarian regime,” the president of the local Tibetan association said. "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 "regime" is not all that enthusiastic about our Republic either.
Campaign for Uyghurs also denounced the event in a formal letter to Mayor Cherelle Parker, the outlet reported.
Its founder, Rushan Abbas—whose sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, was sentenced to 20 years in a Chinese prison—said the flag represents mass surveillance, forced sterilizations, and the silencing of dissent across China.
Why?
Why the need for an event commemorating the founding of communist China in front of City Hall in Philadelphia?
Well, 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 Communist flag in 2023.
A CCP-linked group had also done so in 2005 in Los Angeles to support “reunifying” China and Taiwan, and editorials in local publications noted that the last time this flag was raised was 20 years ago, when it was torn down immediately by anti-CCP onlookers.
The Philadelphia event drew criticism from state and federal lawmakers when it was announced. They, too, are asking the same question.
A few weeks ago, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, voiced strong concern over the Chinese Communist Party’s growing campaign of transnational repression and criticized a Chinese flag-raising ceremony to be held in front of Philadelphia City Hall later in September.
During a visit to the Magnolia Women’s Center in Philadelphia on Sept. 13, Mastriano said the repression campaign of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has extended beyond China’s borders.
Via Epoch Times:
“At the first level in China itself, we watch them with a very repressive attitude toward Christians, Falun Gong, and other groups like Muslims. The communist system is that you worship the government and not God."
“Now we see the second level, where communist China is oppressing people outside of their country—that’s a big problem.
“If there are covert agencies acting as legal agencies or secret police, they need to be removed immediately from my country,” said State Sen. Mastriano.
He's not the only one who is worried about covert agencies emerging from this celebratory attitude.
His concerns align with findings from rights groups such as Freedom House and Safeguard Defenders, as well as media reports on tactics overseas, including so-called police stations, that Chinese authorities use to monitor and intimidate Chinese diaspora communities.
The folks who run Epoch Times would know a great deal about this.
In 2023, the U.S. Justice Department charged two men in New York City for allegedly operating such a station, confirming that Beijing sought to track dissidents and pressure them into silence.
The CCP’s tactics have also targeted Falun Gong practitioners abroad. Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. First introduced to the public in China in 1992, the practice quickly spread by word of mouth. Since then, untold numbers of practitioners have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and even death by forced organ harvesting.
The Chinese Communists don't like Christians either.
The following is a summary of Communist persecution of Christians.
Since its founding, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has sought to control or eradicate Christianity, which it views as a threat to its authority. While periods of persecution have varied in intensity, they have involved ideological indoctrination, political repression, imprisonment, forced labor, and the destruction of churches. Under President Xi Jinping, the crackdown has intensified with a policy of "Sinicization," forcing religions to conform to Communist socialist values.
- Ideological control and repression
- Forced conformity: The CCP requires state-approved churches to promote official Communist philosophy and post propaganda. Officials have removed crosses from churches and replaced images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary with pictures of Xi Jinping.
- Mandatory atheism: Mandatory indoctrination in atheism is promoted from elementary school through university, and the party uses mass media to spread atheist propaganda. Children under 18 are constitutionally prohibited from having any formal religious affiliation and are often taught to report on their parents' faith.
- Political exclusion: Religious leaders are barred from joining the Communist Party and holding government positions.
- Persecution of churches and leaders
State-sanctioned churches: In an effort to maintain control, the CCP has established state-run Protestant (Three-Self Patriotic Movement) and Catholic (Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association) churches. The official churches are heavily monitored and regulated, with sermons and rituals carefully controlled.
- Persecution of unregistered "house churches": Christians who refuse government oversight worship in underground "house churches." These congregations, which have swelled in size for decades, are now facing a severe crackdown.
Pastors and leaders are frequently arrested, detained, or sentenced to long prison terms on fabricated charges, such as "fraud" or "subversion of state power."
- Torture and forced labor: Christian prisoners have been subjected to "re-education" efforts, torture, and forced labor. Accounts describe detainees being held in brainwashing camps, beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to electric shocks and other abuses.
- Intensification under Xi Jinping
- Intensified crackdown: Under Xi Jinping's "Sinicization of religion," the government's assault on Christian communities has become the most comprehensive since the Cultural Revolution.
- Destruction of churches: Authorities have demolished churches and removed crosses to make religious spaces more "Chinese".
- Advanced surveillance: The government uses advanced technology, including facial recognition cameras, to monitor worshippers at both registered and unregistered churches.
- Targeting converts: Converts face additional scrutiny, pressure, and violence from their families and communities.
Takeaway
When Karl Marx called religion the opium of the people, he meant to degrade and denigrate it.
As he himself put it: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people."
When Mao quoted him, he, too, meant to degrade and denigrate it.
Benjamin Franklin was asked the question by Elizabeth Willing Powel, the wife of Philadelphia's mayor, after the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, "What kind of government have you given us?"
Franklin responded: "A republic, Madam, if you can keep it."
He was emphasizing the fragility of the new form of government and the necessity of active citizen participation to preserve it.
Our generation is being called upon to "keep it" from the destructive enemies within and without.
May God help us.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.
