My Employer actually few the Chainese National Flag outside our building!

I know how hard this is to believe, but,

I was walking down our corridor and beginning to pass by our security desk.My friend, who shares the same responsibilities at work and in the dept, was just ahead of me turns around when I give a short holler at him to hold up... he says ..

Friend: "hey...look on the desk.." nodding at the security desk I was about to pass by...
Me: "what.."..

as I take a step and see a fairly large amount of red material laying on top of the desk and begin to realize it's some country flag. I lift it up, and see the yellow stars and thought ..'what the heck...wait a min..! what flag is this ..? and then realize.. it's of Asian origin. Trying to think what county would have a all red flag with yellow stars.. and then it hit me..

I snapped a look at my friend in complete shock with my mouth gaping wide open! I then snapped a look at the security guard which is friendly with all of us, and didn't say a word but sorta grinned and spun around to the monitors as if to say.. "yea"....

I walked over to my friend and he said "(name of another employee) said he saw it flying in air this morning as he was driving by and couldn't really tell we had replaced our company flag, US or State flag with it. It IS the national Chinese Flag!" I was in shock!!

Apparently, we had Chinese visitors from another company that day.. however no one knows from what company..

As far as I know, no one took any pics, because, how often does anyone really look at the company flag poles??

The big question at work remains..."Why?!"





[edit on 10-7-2008 by Komodo]

Why?

To honour the Chinese visitors?

Why shouldn't people fly their flags? It's not like there are hundreds of them everywhere. In a country full of immigrants you have to give a little, I don't see it does any harm if there's an international sports event or something like that, or outside restaurants maybe.

I know there will be people that see it as an insult to the American flag and think the immigrants are taking over etc but that's just fear talking.

I'm in the UK and there are often different countries flags flying, we had a Norwegian dentist that flew his outside the surgery.
I think It's really interesting to see them.

ya i agree so what theres nothing wrong with that, now if you flew a USSR flag during the cold war that might be a lil different, but we "are friends"lol with the Chinese , right?

Why don't you tell us what it is you are worried about?

Why were you so shocked, the Chinese are hugely important to the USA economy, a bit of bowing and scraping is sure to help the negotiations.

Do think China would fly the American flag if we visited there?? Is it just me and 3 other departments in my area have a issue with this? If the Russian's came to visit, would we fly their National flag as well?? What about Iran?

Oh no its the end of the world. There is such a thing called freedom of expression you know. If your boss owns the company he can do whatever the heck he wants to the property.

As long as they don't fly it above the American flag, nothing is wrong with that. We had a Mexican restaurant fly the Mexican flag above the US flag in my home town. That went over like a fart in church. They still fly their colors, but after the media uproar and irate locals, they now fly it below the US flag.

reply to post by Karlhungis


You americans are all the same. America is not the only country in the world. You want to know why everyone hates you guys? One reason. You think you own the world.

You get paranoid over the stupidest things imaginable and think your country is so high and mighty. Please. Give me a break.

I'm surprised other country's haven't nuked you yet just for the we are the best in the universe mentality you all carry around.

reply to post by CPYKOmega


Thank you for the kind words and broad stereotyping.

It is actually illegal in the US to fly a foreign countries flag above the US flag in the US.

www.ushistory.org...

11. When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace. The order of precedence for flags generally is National flags (US first, then others in alphabetical order in English), State (host state first, then others in the order of admission) and territories (Washington DC, Puerto Rico, etc.), Military (in order of establishment: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard), then other.

I was wrong about the US flag being highest, but I was correct about foreign flags not flying higher. This has nothing to do with American paranoia.

Originally posted by Komodo
Do think China would fly the American flag if we visited there?? Is it just me and 3 other departments in my area have a issue with this? If the Russian's came to visit, would we fly their National flag as well?? What about Iran?

chinese companies fly the american flag? yeah, of course, as long as americans were coming to visit.

russian-iranian flags, damn right, if russians or iranians are coming to visit. it's a fairly normal business practice.

reply to post by Komodo


Here are some questions...what company do you work for? Is a subsidiary of a larger "Chinese" company or is it the "Chinese" company a subsidiary of it? Are the companies looking to merge? How does the flying of a Chinese flag outside the building to honor Chinese guests actually effect anything that goes on inside the building?

I laugh these notions of nationalism in the workplace...most companies larger companies, at this point and time, are multinational conglomerates. Not specifically to the OP or anyone specifically, but its humorous how people think that just because a company may exist in America, or whatever company for that matter, that it operates for the benefit of the workers and comsumers of that country..end of the day, the only thing most of these companies care about are the profit margins...but we all know that. Somehow, we all tend to slip back into a nationalistic view, however, not realising that the era of nations is over. Anyhow, thats a bit off tangent.

reply to post by Karlhungis


Actually I'm not wrong. The nuking part was a bit harsh and I'm sorry for that, but I still stand on the rest of my points. All the laws are null and void that you speak of. The 1st amendment nullifies them all.


[edit on 7-14-2008 by CPYKOmega]

reply to post by CPYKOmega


Actually, I would be curious to see how the first amendment would fall in to play here.

this is specifically illegal under United States Code Section 7, Title Four, which states,

(c) No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy. No person shall display the flag of the United Nations or any other national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the United States at any place within the United States or any Territory or possession thereof: Provided, That nothing in this section shall make unlawful the continuance of the practice heretofore followed of displaying the flag of the United Nations in a position of superior prominence or honor, and other national flags in positions of equal prominence or honor, with that of the flag of the United States at the headquarters of the United Nations.

I am not sure why such a law would even exist if it was known to be superseded by the first amendment.

[edit on 14-7-2008 by Karlhungis]

reply to post by Karlhungis


The constitution does nullify that law. The constitution even states itself that no law shall be created that supersedes it.

How to you fail to see how the first amendment applies to this case? The Original posters boss wanted to fly a Chinese flag. This is his freedom of expression.

If you disagree with this fact then how about the Magna Carta which was written even before the US constitution.

reply to post by CPYKOmega


You seem to be pretty worked up over this and I am not looking to get into a pissing contest here. I am not disputing the owners right to put up the Chinese flag. I am merely pointing out that the only way he would run into problems is if he tried to fly it above the US flag, since there are laws that say it is illegal.

These laws have been used to force people to lower flags below the US flag in the past, so there must be some sort of validity to them.

reply to post by Karlhungis


Well that's pretty dumb and if someone told me to take down a flag no matter what the law said I still wouldn't do it if its my own personal property.

So, it's a normal bussiness practice that the company that is hosting take down their company flag to fly a national foreign one; weather or not it's type of goverment?? hmmm.. I'd like to see some doc's on that..

Originally posted by pieman

Originally posted by Komodo
Do think China would fly the American flag if we visited there?? Is it just me and 3 other departments in my area have a issue with this? If the Russian's came to visit, would we fly their National flag as well?? What about Iran?

chinese companies fly the american flag? yeah, of course, as long as americans were coming to visit.

russian-iranian flags, damn right, if russians or iranians are coming to visit. it's a fairly normal business practice.

Here are some questions...what company do you work for?

I'd like to keep that under wraps since and rather not draw attention to myself here at work.

Is a subsidiary of a larger "Chinese" company or is it the "Chinese" company a subsidiary of it?

No, & No

Are the companies looking to merge?

Seriously doubt it! but, I'm not in the 'loop' it could be possible. But, is that normal business practice?? I wouldn't think so.

How does the flying of a Chinese flag outside the building to honor Chinese guests actually effect anything that goes on inside the building?

Well, the only thing that most of us feel is, 'why would they even need to?' to most of us, it's an oddity that needs to be addressed. Think about it, why would a company fly an communist flag in place of their own company flag? I'm assuming that it was our flag they took down OR it was flow beneath ours. To our recollection, this has NEVER happened before. We're a 'world' corp and we've never done this before with any other company that visits us.

Originally posted by madhatr137
reply to post by Komodo

 

Here are some questions...what company do you work for? Is a subsidiary of a larger "Chinese" company or is it the "Chinese" company a subsidiary of it? Are the companies looking to merge? How does the flying of a Chinese flag outside the building to honor Chinese guests actually effect anything that goes on inside the building?

I laugh these notions of nationalism in the workplace...most companies larger companies, at this point and time, are multinational conglomerates. Not specifically to the OP or anyone specifically, but its humorous how people think that just because a company may exist in America, or whatever company for that matter, that it operates for the benefit of the workers and comsumers of that country..end of the day, the only thing most of these companies care about are the profit margins...but we all know that. Somehow, we all tend to slip back into a nationalistic view, however, not realising that the era of nations is over. Anyhow, thats a bit off tangent.

reply to post by Komodo


Well, I think here lies the issue of why you noticed it so much

Think about it, why would a company fly an communist flag in place of their own company flag?

No offense, but that is a very "mid-twentieth century" way of thinking, to start with. Yes, China is technically a communist country. But the thing is that political ideologies, and this goes for all nations, are transient to the leaders.. Yes, China is Communist, inasmuch as America is Democratic...neither are any longer what they say they are, exactly, anymore.

In today's marketplace, the political ideology of one's economic partner is meaningless. Whether it is with a democrat or a dictator, if there is profit to be made, trades happen.

Nationalism, and I think the fact that this issue upsets you so is a prime example, is merely a tool to keep the workers in line, to create a sense of unity amongst them. At the end of the day, we're ina globalised market and it doesn't matter who's flag is flying above or below whatever other flag...but, and here is probably the key...whoever those Chinese individuals were, they were probably very important to the company, important enough to suck up to in such a manner.... Because you're right, in a sense, companies don't suck up to just anyone like that. Whether its ever happened before or not, who knows....maybe it has, but you didn't notice because it was a less obvious international party. Perhaps Europeans who went unnoticed.

I think the point is though, don't be surprised if in the near future of your company there is some outsourcing of some jobs, or possibly an expansion into the Asian market. Those sound like the most logical conclusion to me.

I cant tell you how many flags we have out front of our world headquarters but the US is in the middle and at least 10 feet higher than the others. I'll count next time I go outside the front of the building.

mikell