No cover for dirty deals

No matter how hard the scandal-ridden Red Cross Society of China tries, its public image will be difficult to restore. The loss of public confidence is so complete that almost all charitable organizations associated with Red Cross establishments across China are experiencing drastic reductions in donations.

The latest challenges for Red Cross to publish information on vehicles in its possession, as well as to explain obvious errors in the information it has published on public donations - which the institution attributed to careless compilers - may be easy to muddle through. But there is little chance that the grilling melodrama will end with them.

The trouble is none of the excuses and explanations Red Cross has come up with have sounded convincing to the suspicious public. The information it has shared so far, under tremendous pressure from angry donors, has instead given rise to further doubts and questions.