House Committee on CCP Chair Urges Philadelphia Mayor to Cancel China Flag-Raising Ceremony

‘The city government of Philadelphia should not allow itself to be exploited as a tool for CCP propaganda,’ Rep. John Moolenaar stated.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, speaks during an event in Washington on Feb. 11, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) is demanding that Philadelphia reverse its decision to hold a flag-raising event honoring the anniversary of the founding of communist China.

Philadelphia will raise China’s five-star flag on Sept. 30 at City Hall to commemorate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) National Day.

The mayor’s office did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time.

Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, wrote to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker on Sept. 24, urging her to reconsider.

“Raising the national flag of another country on U.S. soil through an official act is a powerful symbol. A flag raising is used to show respect for a nation that can inspire unity and pride between our two peoples; but it can also be inadvertently used to misrepresent support for another nation’s actions and values,” the letter reads.

Such an event would, in this case, honor a “totalitarian government” responsible for the persecution of people of all faiths, a genocide against Muslim Uyghurs, and subsidizing the chemicals used to make the illicit fentanyl entering U.S. borders, Moolenaar stated.

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.

This is not the first time an American city has raised the five-star flag to commemorate a CCP anniversary. Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Boston held events in 2019. New York City did so in 2023. In 2005, a CCP-linked group held a flag-raising ceremony in Los Angeles to express support for “reunifying” Taiwan and China.

Moolenaar took the opportunity to raise concerns about other Philadelphia links to the CCP: a sister city partnership with Tianjin and cooperation with organizations associated with the United Front, Beijing’s overseas influence operations network.

He named the Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition (PUCC) and Greater Philadelphia Fujian Hometown Association, one of the co-organizers for the upcoming flag event.

There are several Fujian and other Chinese regional associations worldwide that have been linked to the CCP’s overseas influence operations. They purport to be “hometown” associations formed by Chinese immigrants from the same region, but are often involved in promoting CCP interests and partaking in transnational repression efforts to silence Beijing’s critics. These associations fall under the umbrella of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, which is one of the primary United Front groups.

PUCC has also hosted United Front groups and spoken openly about advancing CCP interests, Moolenaar warned the mayor.

He urged Philadelphia not to stand on the side of the CCP over its “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 wrote.

The event has already garnered criticism since its announcement.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano opposed the idea when he learned about the event earlier this month.

“What a stupid, terrible idea,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”What that flag represents!”

“Raising a red flag over Philadelphia with a star in the corner is meaningless, forgetting the Cultural Revolution and then almost 100 million people killed in the various persecutions over the years when the communists took over, when [President of the Republic of China] Chiang Kai-shek fled [to Taiwan] in 1949,” Mastriano said.

“It’s an insult to Americans of Chinese heritage who fled that persecuted system to come to our country for freedom.”

Victoria Coates, vice president of The Heritage Foundation’s Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, condemned the event on X.

“What a disgrace to raise this symbol of brutal CCP oppression in Philadelphia where our Republic was born 250 years ago to ‘celebrate’ the anniversary of a cruel authoritarian regime that is relentlessly hostile to America,” she wrote on Sept. 17.

China expert Gordon Chang also opposed the event, calling it “hideous.”

“What has become of our country? Where are our ideals? Have we become so corrupt? Oppose the raising of China’s flag in Philadelphia,” he wrote on X.