The Red Cross Society of China () is the national

Red Cross Society The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest group of non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian aid, is composed of the following bodies: *The ''International Committee of the Red Cross'' (ICRC), a comm ...

in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Origins and history before 1949

The Red Cross Society of China was founded as the Shanghai International Red Cross Committee on March 10, 1904, during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. The founders were a group of Chinese business and political leaders, led by

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

tea merchant Shen Dunhe. Shen chose to use the Red Cross aegis for his group because the neutrality provided by the Red Cross symbol allowed Chinese relief teams into the Manchurian war zones to aid Chinese civilians caught in the conflict between Japan and Russia. Shen created a Red Cross organization made up of wealthy Chinese and prominent Westerners living in China. The Red Cross Society, supported by government officials, Chinese elites and Western medical workers provided aid to more than a quarter of a million people in China's northeast. After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Chinese Red Cross expanded exponentially, now providing peacetime relief as well. There was no shortage of natural disasters in China for the new group to work on. Floods, famine and fire were endemic in the first half of China's 20th century, along with the outbreak of civil war. The Society opened Red Cross hospitals in Shanghai and in other cities, while local Red Cross chapters blossomed throughout the country, staffed and funded by Chinese eager to participate in patriotic activities, particularly as part of an organization with international connections and an aura of "modernity". By the 1920s, there were over 300 Red Cross chapters in China. The

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

recognized the Red Cross Society of China in 1912 after the establishment of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. The Red Cross Society of China formally joined the International Federation in 1919 and was one of the first members. During the 1920s, the Red Cross Society of China contributed to help other countries hit by natural disasters. In 1906, during the San Francisco earthquake and fire that killed 3,000 and destroyed the city, the Chinese Red Cross sent 20,000 silver

tael Tael (),"Tael" entry
at the

The Society's leadership from the 1920s-1940s was closely tied with the American and British Red Cross societies, the

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

government and the

business community. In 1937, while the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

was raging on, the Act of Administrative Rules and Procedures of the Republic of China Red Cross Society (中華民國紅十字會管理條例施行細則) was passed, and the society was renamed

Red Cross Society of the Republic of China The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (Taiwan) () is the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The society is not recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) because it does not meet all the condi ...

, a society that still exists today, but located in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (the name of the organization at the time) was naturally very active during the

, though its operations were mostly limited to the

strongholds in southwest China and some areas under Japanese occupation. Invaluable medical supplies from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

were transferred to the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China by their American and British counterparts, through

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Overseas Chinese Overseas Chinese () refers to people of Chinese birth or ethnicity who reside outside Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. As of 2011, there were over 40.3 million overseas Chinese. Terminology () or ''Hoan-kheh'' () in Hokkien, refe ...

from Southeast Asia and around the world also raised funds for the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China, and appeals by Chinese diplomats and advocates around the world convinced the American public to make significant donations to support the Chinese people.

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949

Following the outcome of the

Chinese civil war The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, the Red Cross Society, together with other government agencies of the Republic of China, moved to Taiwan. In 1955, the government of the

declared the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China the sole national humanitarian organization in the country, and a law was enacted that same year. The

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

re-organized the Red Cross organization in Beijing and was admitted to the International Federation in 1950 under the name of Red Cross Society of China. Following the liberalization of the communist regime after the death of

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

, a new Red Cross Law was enacted in 1993, allowing the Chinese people to connect with and help each other once again on a private, grassroots basis. The law describes the legal relationship of the Red Cross Society and the PRC government. The

Hong Kong Red Cross The Hong Kong Red Cross (HKRC, ) is the national Red Cross society of Hong Kong as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Its head office is in West Kowloon. It was established officially on 12 July 1950 as a branch of ...

and the

Macau Red Cross The Macau Red Cross ( pt, Cruz Vermelha Macau, ) is a branch of the Red Cross in Macau. The headquarters is in the China Civil Plaza () in Sé. It also has a Medical Transfer Centre () in the Edificio Industrial Hap Si () in , Nossa Senhora de ...

became autonomous members of the Red Cross Society of China after their handover to the

in 1997 and 1999 respectively. Since the early 1990s, the Red Cross Society of China has negotiated with the

to facilitate exchanges of individuals, mostly illegal immigrants or fugitives, between both sides of the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...

. In 2008, the RCSC received 1.537 billion yuan (about 220 million US dollars) in donations from both domestic and overseas sources, nine times the figure of 2007. Ninety percent of the donation was received for disaster-relief work in Sichuan and other quake-hit areas in China, while the Red Cross Angel Program, which provides medical aid to poor areas, received 104 million yuan, and the Bo'Ai Aid Program for poor students received 36.95 million. The Angel Program helped to train 400 rural doctors, and provided aid to about 7,800 people with leukemia, congenital heart disease, cleft lip and palate, deafness, paraplegy and cancer. The Bo'ai Aid Program trained 100 rural teachers, helped 107 needy students to complete their middle school study, and built 556 Red Cross libraries for rural middle and primary schools. That more than 6.9 million people had benefited from the total of 2,194 clinics, 194 schools and 1,112 libraries the foundation had built throughout the country by the end of 2008. The organization came under public scrutiny in 2011 when Guo Meimei, a 20-year-old who claimed to be the general manager of a company called Red Cross Commerce and had boasted online about her luxurious lifestyle, cars and home. This led to public speculation that funds meant for earthquake ravaged areas were instead diverted to internal officials.

References

External links

* {{Authority control

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

1904 establishments in China Organizations established in 1904 Organizations based in Beijing Medical and health organizations based in China

Origins and history before 1949

After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949

See also

References

External links