China's Ministry of Education bans commercials in schools and kindergartens
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‍China's Ministry of Education released a statement on Wednesday that all forms of commercials and marketing activities are to be banned from schools and kindergartens, in light of the case of the misuse of the Chinese Young Pioneer's red scarf by a subsidiary of Wanda Group, a Chinese real estate conglomerate.

In the announcement, the authority urged all of the local education departments to conduct a comprehensive inspection on all commercials and marketing activities currently appearing in schools and kindergartens, especially advertisements printed on textbooks, stationary, teaching aids, school uniforms and school buses. Any commercial activities involving the red scarf should be given precedence.

The authority also demanded that local schools and kindergartens should strengthen how they examine commercial activities that are held on campus.

The authority also requires schools and kindergartens to enhance the supervision of commercial activities on campus and reduce the amount of non-educational activities in order to create a better educational environment for students, the authority said in the statement.

Last month, a subsidiary of Wanda Group was bombarded by Chinese Young Pioneers and netizens for handing out red scarves printed with commercials to primary school students during a road safety campaign event held in Heze City, east China's Shandong Province.

The triangle red scarf is the neckerchief worn by Chinese Young Pioneers. It represents the corner of the national flag and symbolizes the country's revolutionary tradition.

In response, the company apologized and said in a statement that three senior managers related to the incident were fired.

Lv Yongmei, headmaster of the involved primary school, was also punished for allowing the event to take place on school grounds, according to a statement released on the Economic Development Zone of Heze City. 

A lawyer told Legal Daily that misuse of the red scarf could be regarded as showing disrespect to the country's national flag and that the event has possibly breached those laws.

During China's National Day holiday, an officer from the country's People's Liberation Army was lauded by netizens for picking a Chinese national flag off the ground and returning it swiftly to a tourist who was watching the parade. 

According to the Chinese national flag laws, as approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 1990, the country's national flag should not be used for any trademarks and advertisements.