China's Red Cross briefs on scrutiny committee

The Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) on Monday held a press conference on its recent setting up of a special committee to supervise the collection and management of donations.

The move, announced by the RCSC on Saturday via its official microblog account on weibo.com, is intended to improve transparency as the organization has come to suffer public mistrust.

The committee is composed of 16 members, including Chi Fulin, head of the China Institute for Reform and Development; Yu Keping, vice director of the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau; and Bai Yansong, a widely respected anchor and television commentator, according to information released from the press conference.

In selecting committee members, the RCSC has factored in a person's professional background, social reputation and public spirit. The professional backgrounds of the 16 members cover law, finance, medicine, mass communication, social management, and rescue work, according to the press conference.

Huang Weimin, partner of the Beijing-based Grandall Law Firm and secretary general of the RCSC's scrutiny committee, said the committee will supervise the use and management of donations, big projects implemented by the RCSC, and step in to investigate whenever the public raises suspicions over the RCSC's work.

Zhao Baige, executive vice president of the RCSC, said the organization had been preparing to establish a supervisory committee since early 2012, in order to strengthen public oversight as well as to satisfy public expectation through greater transparency.

Zhao promised to facilitate the work of the committee, guarantee its access to information and its right of participation and supervision.

The RCSC came under fire in 2011 after a young woman calling herself "Guo Meimei" wrote microblog posts, claiming that she worked for an organization under the RCSC.

Her posts detailed her lavish lifestyle, leading some netizens to believe she was embezzling funds.

Although it was later found that the organization "Guo" claimed to work for did not exist, the incident had a negative impact on the RCSC and triggered calls for greater scrutiny over charitable organizations.

Donations to the RCSC plummeted 59.39 percent year on year in 2011, according to official data.