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Review of multiple scandals faced by Chinese charities
郭美美炫富与中国红十字会 透支慈善信任
For more on the scandals faced by the China Red Cross and the troubled Chinese charities as a whole, we're joined by our reporter Li Kefu in the studio.
Q1: Could you give us more details of the multiple scandals concerning the China Red Cross and other Chinese charities in the past months?
A: Yes. The scandals you mentioned about the China Red Cross and other Chinese charities have all became eye-catching news for the public across the country. It start after the "Guo Meomei" incident in June. Guo Memei, a 21 year old woman become famous after she showed off her personal wealth on Weibo, China's popular micro-blog.
Showing off your fancy cars, houses and designer clothes to others so as to boost your ego may not seem unusual for some of China's new rich, but Guomeimei claims herself to be the " General manager of the Red Cross Chamber of Commerce" to raise her online social position. It's this type of behavior that caused a huge firestorm towards both her and the Red Cross from the public. The worst part is, it triggered a wave of boycotts of charity donation to the Red Cross in China.
Although Guomeimmei admitted that she does not know any staff from the Red Cross, but it's of little help in rebuilding the profile of China's Red Cross. The damage is done.
It never rains but it pours. Just weeks after the cooling off of the Guo Meimei case, web users have found another target. Miss Lu, 26, is reportedly the executive chairman of the so called China-Africa Project Hope, a charity that is claiming to build 1,000 primary schools in Africa over the next years.
But people have raised many suspicions on the transparency of her charity and especially a 10% commission she claims from donations as "management fee". Whether it's fair or not, she was soon nicknamed "Lu Meimei" after the first case - Another blow to troubled Chinese charities.
Actually, two months before the Guo Meimei and Lu Meimei incident, The Shanghai Red Cross was already exposed by a micro-blog. The Shanghai branch of the China's Red Cross spent nearly ten thousand yuan for a dinner for just 17 people at an upscale restaurant. And the invoice for this expensive dinner was posted online by someone. One could imagine the outrage from the public.
These scandals have severely damaged the reputation of China's Red Cross and other Chinese charity organizations. Many have learned a lesson. I guess we also learned the power of so called micro-blogs.
