If you drove or walked by City Hall in Philadelphia on Tuesday, you might have thought you were in Shanghai or Beijing.
The Chinese Communist Party flag was sponsored by an organization called the Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition. It seeks to improve the CCP's reputation within America as part of a cultural exchange.
The decision sparked a swift backlash with letters demanding that Mayor Cherelle Parker reconsider. But she refused.
John Moolenaar, the Chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, led the outrage as he released an open letter to Parker this week urging her to reconsider the ceremony, The Daily Mail reported.
'Raising the national flag of another country on U.S. soil through an official act is a powerful symbol,' the letter read.
'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.
Diane Gramley is President of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania.
"We don't want the Chinese culture here. We want American culture. And the fact that the Democrats in control of Philadelphia are willing to participate in this is an affront to our Founding Fathers, affront to the ones who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor as they signed the Declaration of Independence there in what we know as Independence Hall."
And Gramley says while the city may have faced legal problems from refusing the request, this would have never happened if someone requested an American flag to fly over Philadelphia's sister city of Tianjin.
"I think if an American over in China requested to have the American flag flown in front of any government building, the Chinese Communist government would not allow such a thing to happen."
