A Red Cross to bear

"I've received dozens of abusive phone calls and text messages since the earthquake hit Ya'an on Saturday, some even at midnight, but we've still got to do our job," Wang Yong, spokesperson from the independent supervisory committee overseeing the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC), told the Global Times in a tired voice.

The credibility of the charity organization - China's largest - has been in tatters ever since Guo Meimei, a young woman who fabricated a title as the general manager of "Red Cross Commerce" bragged about her massive wealth on her verified Sina Weibo account in 2011, prompting a storm of public outrage, which has been further weakened by a series of other scandals.

An RCSC Weibo entry Saturday afternoon that said "our rescue team is on the way to Ya'an to conduct inspections" received over 140,000 identical comments saying "Go away!" over a two day period, and thousands of similar comments dogged follow-up entries by the RCSC.

"We're focusing on disaster relief now and can't focus too much on the accusations," Tao Yijun, a spokesperson from the RCSC, told the Global Times.

In contrast, private charity organizations such as the Shenzhen-based One Foundation, founded by film star Jet Li, received unprecedented public trust on this occasion.

"We publish information on donations online and have the victims sign off when they receive supplies, and only contact the civil affairs authority to learn about victims' needs," said Zeng Min, a rescue officer from One Foundation.

The One Foundation is not alone. Many private agencies the Global Times spoke to said that they have adopted similar requirements.

Believing the worst

Since Saturday, rumors damaging the RCSC have been swirling online, demonstrating how eager the public is to believe the worst about the charity. Media reports falsely indicated that the charity asked for 5 million yuan ($810,295) from its Taiwan counterpart for help, and a picture showing a staff member wearing a luxury watch aroused anger before it was revealed that the person in the picture was a reporter with the Beijing News.

"The committee has received over 60 reports and is investigating 15, but most of them proved to be false. However, the RCSC must respond to our investigation requests quickly. It takes forever for the public to receive a complaint reply directly from the RCSC," said Wang, in reference to his independent committee, which was formed in the wake of previous damaging scandals, to try to halt the RCSC's rapidly declining reputation.

By the end of Saturday, the One Foundation had received over 10 million yuan, while the China Red Cross Foundation under the RCSC had received just 30,000 yuan.