Huh.

Personally I don't understand the reason of the change. Why the flag was not removed from the NY card too then? The flag represents the country not the ideology behind. Now the Beijing card miss something. BTW the cards are very cute, I hope to see other so I can start a new collection.

Maybe there are markets LEGO is selling these items in where including the Chinese flag in a set like that might be an issue...

Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.

@tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.
"

Beijing is the capital of People's Republic and communist party rule, so excluding the flag makes absolutely no sense.

Anyone wanna take bets on how long it takes the comments section to become a dumpster fire?

@Ninabrick69 said:
"Personally I don't understand the reason of the change. Why the flag was not removed from the NY card too then? The flag represents the country not the ideology behind."

There is lots of iconography I would agree with that line of thinking for: historical monuments (e.g. Great Wall), arts (e.g. calligraphy or porcelain), foods (e.g. noodles or rice), and others. But flags tend to be identified pretty strongly with the government. In China’s case, they replaced flags associated with the KMT (i.e. what’s more or less the current Taiwanese flag) with their current, more Communist flag.

So it kinda does symbolize the (internationally controversial) government and ideology.

As to why Lego did not remove the US flag, the USA’s flag has by contrast been more consistent and less identified with particular eras. It’s still identified with liberalism, capitalism, and to a far lesser extent imperialism, but it’s a weaker association than China’s. Additionally, both the US and the values associated with its flag are less controversial in Denmark and Lego’s markets than Communist China.

@tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.
"

Of course, using your logic the USA flag should be censored from Apollo 11 and the White House sets because of its own human rights violations? Quit it with the double standards.

@N_Cat said:

"As to why Lego did not remove the US flag, the USA’s flag has by contrast been more consistent and less identified with particular eras. It’s still identified with liberalism, capitalism, and to a far lesser extent imperialism, but it’s a weaker association than China’s. Additionally, both the US and the values associated with its flag are less controversial in Denmark and Lego’s markets than Communist China."

I'm sure plenty of people living in the Middle East and South America think otherwise. If China's flag is as controversial as you say, then why is it used at the Olympics and plenty of other events for the last 50+ years with no problems? Plenty of people use flags to identify an entire beyond just the government, and to suggest that having a Chinese flag on a toy is spreading "communist ideology" is just as laughable, especially since China in practice is hyper capitalist with Lego factories there.

The Chinese flag smells bad to TLC but not the Chinese money. So hypocritical...

@tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.
"
But they clearly have no qualms about using Chinese cheap labour to increase their profits. But it’s the kind of hypocritical grandstanding that seems to impress so many people these days.

I usually don't really care, but in this case I wonder what the PRC will think of lego with this move? Would the government care? What signal would this even be perceived to be? And would the average Chinese consumer even know it wasn't always without a flag?

Either way, day 0 without lego changing their mind on a set that's either close to production or actually already has been produced again. Sigh.

It can't be down to a human rights issues, because America is just as notorious.

I just don't get it. That's all I have to say.

So both flags should be removed because someone can have bad thoughts about USA military actions behind their flag!

Or if they are scared of making such (lets say controversial) sets they should make only postcards from PURE AND LOVED countries such as: Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Finland. That's all. :)

“We must therefore conclude …”
I’d be more interested in what TLG says about it and not what online soothsayers see in the tea leaves

As a Chinese, please allow me to use AI translation to explain briefly: in fact, the printed flag in this suit is likely to violate the National Flag Law of the people's Republic of China

There’s another possibility, Lego we’re asked to remove the flag.

@PaulieReynolds said:
"There’s another possibility, Lego we’re asked to remove the flag."

Exactly what I was about to say. Everyone is assuming LEGO chose to remove the flag. It’s possible they were forced to remove it. Perhaps due to IP laws or China not wanting to hurt their brand by being associated with something as awesome as LEGO.

@MisterBrickster: I've often wondered what some comment threads would look like if Brickset had adownvote button.

@tencocj said:
"As a Chinese, please allow me to use AI translation to explain briefly: in fact, the printed flag in this suit is likely to violate the National Flag Law of the people's Republic of China"

That makes sense, thanks for sharing this.

@jsutton said:
"Will be interesting to hear the official explanation for the change. It feels like another opportunity taken to create artificial scarcity."

The original set with the flag was never released so not relevant in this case.

@saltytbone said:
"“We must therefore conclude …”
I’d be more interested in what TLG says about it and not what online soothsayers see in the tea leaves"

Agreed, this kind of baseless speculation doesn't contribute to the article at all, and only creates rumours (which are now confirmed as - probably - false, but probably have already spread in the AFOL community through people who havent seen the update that was added at a later time).

I don't want to bash the Brickset editorial team, I think they're doing a great job, and there's certainly nothing wrong with having an independent and critical view on how TLG operates, but if you're a critical reporter, you also have a responsibility to report on the basis of facts, not unsubstantiated theories presented as facts. This article is a minor slip up in my view, but nevertheless important to keep in mind for the future.

@NatureBricks said:
" @tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.
"

The USA has killed six million people in the last 20 years and has a human rights record worse than China. It's flag is still in several sets."

Source?

@TheOtherMike said:
" @MisterBrickster: I've often wondered what some comment threads would look like if Brickset had adownvote button."

It would look like Reddit, which it already does too much. I'd rather see an "ignore" button to hide posts from users you know aren't going to say anything you're interested in hearing.

Lego just do one of Ukraine with a nice big flag you will sell millions

@N_Cat said:
" @Ninabrick69 said:
"It’s still identified with liberalism, capitalism, and to a far lesser extent imperialism, but it’s a weaker association than China’s."

I think the global south might disagree with the "far lesser" part."

In which country am I allowed to say "Taiwan is a free country and the nine-dash line is a sham?" without being arrested?

@monkyby87 said:
" @NatureBricks said:
" @tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it.

Good call, Lego.
"

The USA has killed six million people in the last 20 years and has a human rights record worse than China. It's flag is still in several sets."

Source?"

Maybe the number are off; but as for a source how about the unprovoked (illegal) invasion and occupation of Iraq...or is that fake new?!?

@Ninabrick69 said:
"Personally I don't understand the reason of the change. Why the flag was not removed from the NY card too then? The flag represents the country not the ideology behind. Now the Beijing card miss something. BTW the cards are very cute, I hope to see other so I can start a new collection."

Because this is a Chinese law. US doesn't have this law.

@daniellesa said:
"It can't be down to a human rights issues, because America is just as notorious."

Exactly right. Just like China, America also has concentration camps with Uyghur slaves

To think this dumpster fire could've been prevented had the update been included from the outset.

@pawelg said:
" @Wellspring said:
" @PaulieReynolds said:
"There’s another possibility, Lego we’re asked to remove the flag."

Exactly what I was about to say. Everyone is assuming LEGO chose to remove the flag. It’s possible they were forced to remove it. Perhaps due to IP laws or China not wanting to hurt their brand by being associated with something as awesome as LEGO."

IP laws for a flag? Are you for real?"

Not IP laws but other laws and it’s not unheard of. Being from Mexico, for example, I can tell you that there’s pretty strict guidelines and regulations as to how to depict the flag on different types of products and it’s not allowed to be on certain products at all.

@Ladondorf said:
"I liken Lego making these sets celebrating Chinese national pride at this point in history to if they were making sets celebrating German national pride during the 1930s."
This isn’t a celebration of national pride, it’s just an acknowledgement of Beijing as a tourist attraction. It’s the equivalent of making a Berlin set with no Swastikas around that time, if even that. The CCP needs to go but they’re not all there is to China and a new administration might keep the five star red flag if they were ever overthrown, theoretically speaking.

might as well close and delete all comments for this article, certainly a pointless dumpster fire as others have mentioned

@tenfootgerbil said:
"Probably because it's been the flag since the People's Republic, and the human rights history associated with it. "

Ha, your mind is gonna explode when you hear about the "human rights history" "associated" with the UK.