Flag of the Qing dynasty he petitioned the imperial court for permission and subsequently altered the triangular naval flag into a rectangular one. Seeing Western countries flying national flags on official occasions, Li Hongzhang also asked Empress Dowager Cixi to select a national flag for the Qing dynasty. Among the proposals for use of the Ba gua flag, the Yellow dragon flag and the Qilin flag, Cixi selected the Yellow dragon design. In 1888, the imperial court promulgated the naval flag as the Qing national flag. The notion of yellow as representative of Manchu ethnicity was used in the flags of the Five-coloured flag of
Flag of Europe of Kalergi's suggestion of adding a crescent alongside the cross to overcome the Muslim objections. Other proposals included the flag was the European Movement, which had a large green E on a white background, a design was based on the Olympic rings, eight silver rings on a blue background, rejected due to the rings' similarity with "dial", "chain" and "zeros", or a large yellow star on a blue background, rejected due to its similarity with the so-called Burnet flag and the flag of the Belgian Congo. The Consultative Assembly narrowed their choice to two designs. One was by Salvador de