Safeguarding the national flag has been the job of marines in the United States. Until a few days ago, the Chinese armed policemen had performed this duty in Beijing. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has taken over the job. 

What do the five stars on the national flag represent? Back in 1949, upon the founding of the People's Republic of China, the first plenary session of the Chinese people's political consultative conference, the top political advisory body, decided to use these stars to represent four social strata in unity surrounding the Communist Party of China. They represent workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national capitalists in what amounts to a united front. The Chinese red indicates revolution. 

The designer Mr Zeng Liansong came from eastern China’s Zhejiang province. His design was chosen from over 3,000 applications in September 1949. In 1990, the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, adopted The National Flag Law.

No one knows why the regular PLA army took it over. But many believe this decision was made after the joint command and control of armed policemen by the central military commission and the state council was put purely under the PLA central military commission of the communist party. 

The job of the armed policemen is to provide security for targets of strategic importance, such as gold deposits, firefighting, border security and forest patrols. China’s national anthem is featured prominently against the backdrop of the eight-year war against Japanese aggression.

President Xi Jinping is concurrently chairman of the central military commission. His anti-graft campaign is still gaining momentum within the barracks when the mission of overhauling the military command and control structure is over. So far, 100 or so generals have been brought to justice on charges of corruption.

President Xi wants the military to be well-equipped and to be combat-ready. He says the modernized Chinese military has to make sure it prevails under whatever circumstances.