The larger star symbolizes the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the four smaller stars that surround the big star symbolize the four classes of Chinese people that were considered unitable by Chairman Mao at that time (from one of Mao's works, On The People's Democratic Dictatorship); these are the Workers, Peasants, Petty Bourgeoisie (i.e. Small Business Class), and National Bourgeoisie (i.e. Chinese non-governmental businessmen). The most popular modern interpretation is that the four stars represent the four occupations most esteemed by the Communist Party of China, which are farmers, workers, teachers, and soldiers. An interpretation under a more historical context is the four stars represent the traditional four categories of the people in the state, which are Workers, Farmers, Intellectuals and Businessmen。

Other possible symbolic interpretations can be drawn from the fact that the color of the Chinese flag, red, used to be the symbolic color of the mighty Han Dynasty (the Chinese people are often referred to as the "Han" people in Chinese). There is also a connection to the traditional Chinese blessing, "Five stars rising on the east." Finally, it is worth noticing that the color of the stars on the flag, yellow, was the symbolic color of another great dynasty in Chinese history, the Tang Dynasty.

It is sometimes stated that the five stars of the flag represent the five largest ethnic groups. This is generally regarded as an erroneous conflation with the "Five Races Under One Union" flag, used 1912–28 in the early Republic of China, whose different-colored stripes represented the Han, Manchus, Mongols, Hui/Uyghurs, and Tibetans.

Editor: Yan Fei