Philadelphia raised the flag of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on September 30 in a commemoration of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) National Day.
The city is part of a sister-city partnership with the Chinese city of Tianjin. The arrangement, made in 1979, was “one of the earliest such ties between a U.S. and a Chinese city,” according to the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
Ahead of the event, Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) sent a letter to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, urging the flag-raising ceremony to be canceled.
“The city where America declared independence and that all people have the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, should not raise the flag of an authoritarian regime represented by the Chinese Communist Party, which denies those freedoms to its own people,” Moolenaar wrote. “Raising the flag of the People’s Republic of China over Philadelphia is a disgrace to our nation’s founding values and flies in the face of all the courageous dissidents and human rights advocates who tirelessly work to bring freedom to the Chinese people.”
“Raising the national flag of a foreign adversary country sends the wrong message to our citizens and lawful residents, especially those oppressed by the CCP regime. The city government of Philadelphia should not allow itself to be exploited as a tool for CCP propaganda,” he added. “To cancel the PRC flag-raising ceremony will not only demonstrate that the local government in the United States stands for U.S. values and national interests, but that it stands in support for the people of China who face the regime’s ruthless oppression and transnational repression.”
