The flag of the Chinese People's Liberation Army is the war flag of the People's Liberation Army; the layout of the flag has a golden star at the top left corner and two Chinese characters "八一" to the right of the star, placed on a red field.

The characters "八一" (literally "eight one") are a reference to the events of August 1, 1927 (8th month, 1st day, also known as 8月1日); when the PLA was created by the Chinese Communist Party at the start of their rebellion in Nanchang against the Nationalist government.

[1] Based on a decree issued from Mao Zedong, the main flag of the PLA was created on 15 June 1949.

For ceremonies, a PLA flag with golden fringe is placed on a pole with gold and red spiral stripes and topped with a golden finial and red tassel.

The three olive stripes represents the People's Armed Police responsible for the three main tasks and force composition of maintaining national political security and social stability, maritime rights protection and law enforcement, and defense operations.