"The masses in any given place are generally composed of three parts, the relatively active, the intermediate and the relatively backward. The leaders must therefore be skilled in uniting the small number of active elements around the leadership and must rely on them to raise the level of the intermediate elements and to win over the backward elements." -Mao Tse Tung "Some Questions Concerning Methods of Leadership" (June 1, 1943), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 118.
Patriotism is a tool Communists can use to bring the backwards masses forward. One doesn't even need to feel the patriotism themselves to see the gains in class consciousness amongst the conservative members of the working class.
You don't have to like the ACP, but it's undialectical to ignore what they actually do