Amended law a chance to change Red Cross image

The draft of an amended law on the Red Cross Society of China was reviewed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the top legislature, on Monday - the first proposed changes to the law since it was adopted in 1993.

For the RCSC, amending the law to supervise its activities and make them more transparent may act as an antidote to the widespread doubts cast on its trustworthiness in handling the charity donations it receives after a series of scandals in the past few years.

Although the total amount of charity donations has been on the rise nationwide in the past few years, the donations the RCSC and its local branches have received have been on the decline. The total amount of donations the country received in both money and goods reached 104.23 billion yuan ($15.67 billion) in 2014, but the amount the RCSC received was only 2.64 billion yuan, 2.5 percent of the total, much lower than in 2011.