Red Cross Society of China - After The Proclamation of The People's Republic of China in 1949

After The Proclamation of The People's Republic of China in 1949

Following the outcome of the Chinese civil war, the Red Cross Society, together with other government agencies of the Republic of China, moved to Taiwan. In 1955, the government of the Republic of China 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 Communist Party of China 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, 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 and the Macau Red Cross became autonomous members of the Red Cross Society of China after their handover to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

Since the early 1990s, the Red Cross Society of China has negotiated with the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China to facilitate exchanges of individuals, mostly illegal immigrants or fugitives, between both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

In 2008, the RCSC received 1.537 billion yuan (about 220 million US dollars) in donations from both domestic and overseas sources last year, 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.