Wang Yuanyuan

    A YOUNG woman, who implied she had a link to the Red Cross Society of China, has caused outrage among users of China’s Sina Weibo, the country’s largest microblogging Web site, since last Tuesday after boasting about her luxurious lifestyle, triggering concern that donated money was being misused.

    Guo Meiling, who owns a Maserati and a Lamborghini and often shows off her Birkin handbags in her Weibo postings, claimed to be the general manager of Red Cross Commerce, which she said handled advertising on Red Cross vehicles, on her online personal profile. She gave her name as Guo Meimei on her microblog.

    Many netizens questioned whether Guo had financed her lifestyle out of money that had been donated to the society. As a defense, Guo said she “had never misused donations and was just born into a rich family.”

    Some netizens speculated she was the daughter of Guo Changjiang, vice president of the Red Cross, and the rumor was later broken by Guo Changjiang as he did not have a daughter.

    Netizens found she, former winner of a small karaoke competition held by a Shenzhen karaoke venue, still lived in poor conditions in 2008 and changed her cars, going from Hyundai to Mini Cooper in 2008 and 2009. She got two new cars in May this year, including a Maserati under her name and Lamborghini under a businessman called Wang Jun who lived in Shenzhen.

    She has since become the hottest topic on the country’s major microblogging Web sites and the number of her followers has shot up to more than 210,882 as of Sunday night.

    Guo apologized to netizens on her microblog Sunday, saying she made a huge mistake for changing her profile from “actor” to “general manager” just “for fun.” She said she had no connection with the Red Cross and was very sorry for letting the society be involved in the incident.

    Faced with a huge number of angry netizens asking for an explanation, the Red Cross posted an announcement on its homepage, saying there was no such company as Red Cross Commerce under the Red Cross and noting that the organization did not have an employee named Guo Meiling.

    “We only use 999 ambulances, on which we never print advertisements,” said Ding Shuo, the director of the society’s policy and regulation department, on Thursday.

    However, netizens found out a Shenzhen company, Tianlue Group, was behind Red Cross Commerce and in a picture of an anniversary celebration party of Red Cross Commerce posted on the company’s official Web site, top officials from the Red Cross, including Guo Changjiang, attended the party and took pictures with the president of the company, Qiu Zhenliang.

    The society later denied the relationship with the company. Qiu Zhenliang and Guo Changjiang both said in their statements that they neither knew each other nor Guo Meiling, but netizens still were not convinced. Some even said angrily they would never donate to the society again.

    “Guo Meiling is just a silly girl who likes showing off. What really matters is who is behind her. We do not care whether she is a rich daughter or a mistress. We just want to use her to figure out the truth about the charity industry, letting the corruption of charities to be revealed to the public,” said a netizen whose microblog name is Jiang Pengyong. Jiang has followed the incident from the very beginning and his microblog has revealed a lot of personal information about Guo Meiling.

    Guo Meiling apologized Sunday, saying she made a huge mistake for changing her profile from “actor” to “general manager of Red Cross Commerce” just “for fun.”

    Former employee reveals cooperation between Tianlue and Red Cross

    Wang Yuanyuan

    A MAN who claimed to be a former employee of the Shenzhen Tianlue Group told the Daily Sunshine on Friday the company had jointly worked with the Red Cross Society of China in the hope of making money in the name of charity but failed.

    The man said the company, whose main business was to lend loans to small companies and individuals, had tried to cooperate with the society in many projects over recent years, but they had not succeeded in making any money. He also said the company had given computers and cars to the society to win projects.

    Although the company confirmed their occasional cooperation with the society, it has never tried to “make any money in the name of charity,” said Mo Weizhi, lawyer of the company.

    Mo also said the company had no relationship with Guo Meiling.

    According to the former employee, Tianlue had cooperated with the society on a Red Cross campus safety plan. The plan was to buy insurance cards for students at schools. “The company wanted to build a payment platform with banks and gained some subsidies from the government, but it failed,” the employee said.

    However, Mo said the purpose of the project was “purely for charity.”

    The general secretary of the society Li Qingyi said Tianlue had donated money for three years in the project. They wanted to put charity auctions and advertisements on the cards, but they did not succeed. “There was one charity auction, but nobody bid. Apart from the auction, we did not allow the company to hold any other donation activities in the name of the project again,” Li said.

    Another key project was about selecting star donators in the country in 2008. “The company planned to hold charity promotion activities in provinces under the name of Red Cross. They planned to donate money to gain the project and to win sponsorship in different areas under the name of Red Cross during the activities in order to make money,” the employee said.

    However, the project was not approved by the higher authorities due to reasons such as the earthquake in Sichuan Province. “To get the project, the company gave free computers and cars to the society and even gave salaries to many of its staff. But it was not approved in the end and the two’s close relationship was not as good as before due to the disapproval,” he said.

    Mo said he did not know about the project very well, but the company’s purpose must be charity, not profit.

    Li admitted to the computers and cars given by the company. “But they were for working purposes. We worked together at that time and they provided us with working facilities. All these things were given back to the company when the project ended,” he said.