Five Races Under One Union

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The center flag is the Five-Colored Flag of the Republic of China. Underneath the flags is the message: "Long live the five races under one union" (五族共和萬歲) with the five races referring to the five nationalities of China represented by the Five-Color Flag of the Republic.

Five races under one union (Chinese: 五族共和, literally “five races together’’) was one of the major principles that the Republic of China was originally founded upon. This principle emphasized the harmony of the five major ethnic groups in China as represented by the colored stripes of Five-Colored Flag of the Republic: the Han (red), the Manchus (yellow), the Mongols (blue), the Hui (white), and the Tibetan people (black).

The concept of “five races under one union” started to end when the control of the ROC government was wrestled from the Beijing-based Beiyang government by the Nanjing-based Chinese Nationalist government after the Northern Expedition.

A variation of this flag was adopted by Yuan Shikai's empire and the Manchukuo puppet government.