Is flag burning illegal in China?
Criminal offense
Flag desecration is illegal in China with imprisonment terms of up to 3 years.
China is one of 53 countries classified “Criminal offense” for flag desecration — 79% of the 67 with data. (Also searched as flag burning.)
Source
- Taken from
- Wikipedia: Flag desecration
- Last checked
- 7 July 2026
- How it was classified
- Classified by a language model from the source text, then checked against hand-verified reference countries.
Nearby countries
- South Korea
- Criminal offense South Korean law punishes flag desecration with imprisonment up to two years.
- Hong Kong
- Criminal offense Flag desecration is illegal in Hong Kong, with convictions and prison sentences for such acts.
- Taiwan
- Criminal offense Taiwan criminalizes insulting national flags or emblems with penalties up to one year imprisonment.
- Nepal
- Criminal offense Burning the Nepali national flag is illegal with penalties of up to three years imprisonment or fine.
- India
- Criminal offense Violating the Indian Flag Code, including improper display, is punishable by penalties.
- Japan
- Only foreign flags protected Only desecration of foreign flags is illegal in Japan, while the Japanese flag itself is constitutionally protected.
Other laws in China
- Blasphemy Laws
- Criminal offense
- Holocaust Denial
- No specific law
A visual reference compiled from Wikipedia’s law-by-country articles, not legal advice. Laws change and summaries simplify — check a primary source before relying on anything here.