You don’t have to have fled two communist-leaning countries, as I have, to find it appalling that Philadelphia recently celebrated the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by flying its flag at City Hall.

But this proud U.S. citizen knows America’s Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if they had seen this emblem of repression flying over the birthplace of American liberty.

Communist China isn’t just another country. It’s America’s foremost foreign adversary—and it poses a significant threat to the U.S. Its military and technology capabilities alone pose a critical threat to national security, and it has deliberately fueled the U.S. fentanyl crisis.

Not only that, but it’s directly targeted our academic institutions and technology—and it engages in so much espionage that it’s been listed by the FBI as a “top counterintelligence priority.”

Reports regularly emerge of human rights atrocities that baffle the imagination, including mass surveillance, torture, population control, and forced labor. The CCP enforces blatantly anti-family policies and represses any manner of free speech, religion, or cultural expression.

It’s no coincidence that Philadelphia’s Office of Immigrant Affairs hoisted the Chinese Communist flag on Sept. 30 at an event sponsored by the Pennsylvania United Chinese Coalition and the Greater Philadelphia Fujian Hometown Association— both have direct ties to the CCP.

There is no doubt that Xi Jinping, leader of this profoundly anti-American regime, is thrilled that his flag flew in the city dubbed “the Cradle of Liberty.”

It’s a disturbing sign of the times that the most historic city in the nation—“the Birthplace of America” and “the Cradle of Liberty”—is celebrating the most sinister, fraudulent, and anti-American regime in modern history. And this isn’t the first time. This year’s occurrence marks the third time the “City of Brotherly Love” has flown the flag of our foremost foreign adversary.

That’s deeply ironic, given that many Chinese residents of Philadelphia fled the very regime being celebrated. To them, the flag’s display doesn’t just serve as a painful reminder of the persecution they escaped—it signals that the CCP has infiltrated their city.

That infiltration isn’t something to welcome.

Philadelphia is home to the Liberty Bell and to Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were drafted and signed. It hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, and it served as the U.S. capital from 1790 to 1800.

Some might argue that raising the CCP flag celebrates diversity, honoring the Chinese people living in the city. Indeed, the Philadelphia Office of Immigrant Affairs regularly hoists foreign flags in a display of virtue-signalling inclusivity.

To this I pose a rhetorical question: Would you ever expect to see an American flag flying in Communist China? The answer is a categorical no.

It’s time to reclaim America.

There’s a fundamental problem in our society when it becomes “divisive” to say we shouldn’t fly the flag of a regime that opposes everything we claim to stand for. This type of performative DEI event is precisely what American society must reject. Only the American flag should be flown in the city where our Founding Fathers first gathered to fight for liberty against tyranny—the very tyranny we celebrate when we praise Communist China.

Philadelphia should honor our nation, our founding principles, and our historic city—not bow to a communist regime that, if given the chance, would strip away everything that we hold near and dear.

On becoming a citizen of the United States, I put away any allegiance to my native birthplace. To do otherwise would be a shameful betrayal of this country which has welcomed me and any legal immigrant to live peacefully here.

For Philadelphia to lay out the welcome mat for the Chinese Communist Party is a travesty that would never be permitted by those countries now allowed to fly their flags here. Foreign flags belong solely in the embassy grounds of foreign countries.

It frightens me to see how we are allowing—nay, welcoming, the oppressive CCP into our country. America is the last bastion against communism. There is nowhere else to flee.

As a citizen of the United States of America, it is my duty, and the duty of every proud American, to resist this encroachment. If we can’t protect our country from the influence of the CCP and the spread of divisive ideologies, we risk betraying the principles our Founding Fathers established in Philadelphia nearly 250 years ago. The City of Philadelphia must not become a mere tool of the CCP.

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Donna Ellingsen, a Chester County Precinct Committee woman, lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania. She is a Sentinel for Heritage Action for America. HAFA is the political arm of the Heritage Foundation.

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