Two days later, Mao had a meeting in his office about the flag. He persuaded everyone to adopt Zeng’s design, with some slight modifications. According to earlier discussions at the Beijing Hotel, the hammer and sickle from Zeng’s original design was removed since it was similar to the Flag of the Soviet Union. On September 27, 1949, Zeng’s modified design was selected unanimously by the First Plenary Session of CPPCC, which changed the flag’s name to “Five-star Red Flag”.
On September 29, the new flag was published in the People’s Daily, so the design could be copied by other local authorities. The flag was officially unveiled in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949, at the formal announcement of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
The first flag flown over Tiananmen Square was sewn together by Zhao Wenrui (赵文瑞), a seamstress who finished the task around 1 pm on September 30. Zeng had a hard time believing that his design was picked, due to the missing hammer and sickle from the giant star. However, he was officially congratulated by the General Office of the Central People’s Government as the designer of the flag and received 5 million yuan for his work.
A more in-depth discussion including additional history, historical flags and interpretive commentary is available elsewhere.