China

According to Carol P. Shaw in the book Flags (Running Press), the red of the flag is the traditional color of revolution; the large gold star represents "the Common Program of the Communist Party"; and the smaller gold stars represent the four classes united by the common program: the workers, the peasants, the petty bourgeois, and capitalists sympathetic to the Party (or "patriotic capitalists").
Bruce Tindall, 03 April 1996

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Very early versions of the flag has been in use since the early 1920s by the Communist Party, but was modified to become the present national flag in 1949.
Xuess Wee York Ting , 25 September 1996

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When I lived in PRC from 1987-88, I asked about the symbolism of the flag. I was told by several university professors and students on several different occasions that the large star represents the guiding light of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the four small stars represent the four other political parties allowed in the PRC.

These parties accept the legitimacy of the CCP to run the government and that they will not advocate for any change in government. These other parties, whose names I never could ascertain, are basically toothless and lend legitimacy to the PRC's claim to be a multiparty system.
Steven Chapman, 16 August 1999

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Whatever the present 'meaning' of the stars on the Chinese communist flag, I believe the original symbolism was the same as the original Republic flag - the Han people of China and the 4 other races (Manchurian, Mongolian, Tibetan, and Muslims). The first republican flag was 5 horizontal stripes red yellow blue white black, which IMO was a very handsome flag. Andrew Yong, 16 August 1999

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All books which mention the symbolism of the starlets on the PRC flag have the same explanation. There are at present 8 small parties besides the Communist Party: Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang, Democratic League, Democratic Society for National Construction, Society for Furthering Democracy, Democratic Laborers and Peasa