Police in eastern China’s Zhejiang province have detained a man who “insulted” the Chinese national flag while he was intoxicated over the weeklong National Day holiday, according to an official announcement Sunday.

A public security bureau in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, said the 28-year-old man, surnamed Li, was detained for “desecrating the national flag.” Locals called the police early Sunday morning after the observed Li “drunkenly stomping and urinating” on a flag he had taken from the gate of a local residential complex, the statement said.

Chinese law prohibits anyone from desecrating the national flag, and offenders are subject to up to 15 days in police custody for minor infractions or a three-year maximum prison sentence in more serious cases. Last year, a man in the southern Guangdong province was sentenced to six months in prison after he laid the flag down on the floor as a mat and stepped on it several times during the opening ceremony for his new martial arts hall. (Image: IC)