CHINA MERCHANTS STEAM NAVIGATION CO. LTD.

The house flag became red with a yellow disc, described as the yellow moon, in July 1873, replacing a twin dish-dragon flag. C268 appears to have changed at the 1949 division. The yellow-disc flag was no longer reported in use by the later comments.

Mario Fabretto’s account, following Aldo Ziggioto, treats the red-and-yellow-disc flag as a merchant ensign, with one or two dragons added in 1903 according to the number of shipowners. W.J. Gordon instead says the plain flag was the company’s, mistaken for a national ensign because of its name. Miles Li doubts official status or regular use of the dragon designs and calls them fantasy variants, though they appeared decoratively on calendars. He later describes the plain company flag as a de facto merchant ensign during the monarchy. The competing interpretations remain separate.