First proudly displayed in Tianmen square on October the 1st 1949, the Chinese National flag represents the founding of the People's republic of China and its continuation, red symbolizing the people's solidarity.
Throughout the 20th century red has been symbolic of socialist and communist politics. Denoting the labour party in the UK, and the Russian Communist party for example being used as a symbol of power for the "red army."
Back in UK "Red Ken" was much maligned for his looney-left wing policies in the Greater London Council (GLC). However, after arguably even bigger white elephants such as the millenium dome,"Red" Ken Livingstone was elected as the mayor of London in 2000 and continued in the post until 2008.
In 2009, The People's Republic of China celebrated its 60th birthday
An interesting point of note was that in 2009, China was able to look back on thirty years of "open policy" and another thirty years of closed policy."
Thirty Years of Closed China - Mao Tse-Tung
Thirty Years of Open China - Deng Xiao-Ping
Some interesting quotes I managed to dig up
"The winner always gets to write the history." Alex Haley
"Magnificent! Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so!" George S. Patton
"History never looks like history when you are living through it." John W. Gardner
"History is the sum total of the things that could have been avoided." Konrad Adenauer
Zhou Enlai and his wife Deng Yingchao
"There is nothing more dangerous than history used as a defense, or history used for preaching; history used as a tool is no longer history." Marcel Trudel
History is politics projected into the past. M.N. Pokrovsky