August 2, 2012, the State Council issued “Views on the Promotion of the Work and Development of the Red Cross Society.” The State Council’s document refers to the Chinese Red Cross as “the government’s assistant in the field of humanitarianism.” The executive vice-president of the Red Cross, Zhao Baige, noted that the Red Cross is not just any charitable organization, or social organization. It is an organization that has been empowered by three sources: the Chinese government, the International Red Cross movement, and the public.
The State Council document calls for centralizing the Red Cross so that local Red Cross offices are more closely tied to the higher level Red Cross office, rather than to the local governments, in terms of supervision and guidance. It also talks about the importance of strengthening transparency, and details plans for the Red Cross to build a new online platform to track donations.
