Beijing - Police in south-western China have arrested two men suspected of throwing paint-filled eggs at national, military and Communist Party flags, local media said on Wednesday.

More than 100 police questioned 873 people in the hunt for the paint-throwers after the attack at a martyrs' cemetery in the city of Chongqing on November 23, the Chongqing Times reported.

The two suspects confessed to police that they had thrown four paint-filled eggs at each of five flags, the newspaper said.

If convicted, Zhang Jingzhi and Wen Tingyu face up to three years in prison under Chinese administrative law, it said.

The throwing of "paint eggs" carries a symbolic link to an iconic act of defiance during the 1989 pro-democracy protests, when three men paint-bombed a giant portrait of former leader Mao Zedong on Beijing's Tiananmen gate.

Dissident Yu Dongyue was released in early 2006 after he spent nearly 17 years in prison for paint-bombing the Mao portrait.

The other two convicted of the attack were released early after they each spent about 10 years in prison.

Yu reportedly served his full sentence because he refused to confess to any crime. (dpa)