Flag of the Republic of China

File:Taiwan flag large.png

Flag Ratio: 1:2

The Flag of the Republic of China is currently used on Taiwan and is therefore often and incorrectly identified as the flag of Taiwan. It is referred to as "Blue Sky, White Sun, Wholly Red Earth (青天、白日、滿地紅 in pinyin: qing1 tian1, bai2 ri4, man3 di4 hong2)", originates from the "Blue Sky and White Sun Flag" (青天白日旗 qing1 tian1 bai2 ri4 qi2), the Kuomintang party flag, which was designed by Lu Hao-tung (陸皓東 lu4 hao4 dong1). The "red earth" portion, which signifies the blood of those revolutionaries who sacrificed themselves in order to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and create the Republic of China, was added by Sun Yat-sen in 1906, bringing the flag to its modern form. The three colours of flag correspond to the Three Principles of the People. White represents people's livelihood, blue democracy, and red nationalism. The twelve rays of the white sun symbolize the twelve months and the twelve traditional Chinese hours (時辰 shi2 chen0), each of which correspond to two modern hours (小時 xiao3 shi2, literal meaning: "little shi").

The use of the flag is somewhat political signficant and controversial on Taiwan itself. Because it is technically the flag of the Republic of China and not of Taiwan, it has an association with the ideology of Chinese nationalism and Chinese reunification. In addition, the fact that the flag is derived from the seal of the Kuomintang is also quite controversial.

One major concession that the Democratic Progressive Party and the Chen Shui-Bian has made in order to demonstrate that it has moderated its position on Taiwan independence is to use the flag on state occasions. However, the ROC flag and its colors is almost never seen in political rallies of the Democratic Progressive Party while it is usually given great prominence in political rallies of the Kuomintang and the Pan-Blue Coalition and in fact that party color associated with Chinese reunification comes from the color of the field of the flag.