| Founder(s) | Shen Dunhe[1][2] |
|---|---|
| Type | Aid agency |
| Founded | March 10, 1904[3][4] |
| Location | Taipei, Taiwan |
| Origins | Shanghai[5] |
| Key people | Chen Chang-wen -陳長文 (Chén Zhǎngwén)- (President) |
| Area served | Taiwan, Pescadores, Kinmen, and Matsu |
| Focus | Helping the refugees in times of conflict and providing assistance to disaster victims |
| Revenue | 1,509,510,000 New Taiwan dollars (as on Dec. 2008)[6]. |
| Endowment | Public and private donations |
| Website | http://www.redcross.org.tw/RedCross/index.jsp (Traditional Chinese) |
| Red Cross Society of the Republic of China | |||||||||||||||
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| Traditional Chinese | 中華民國紅十字會 | ||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中华民国红十字会 | ||||||||||||||
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The Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (中華民國紅十字會) is the national Red Cross Society of Taiwan (Republic of China). The Society is recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross as a national committee[7]. It shares its history with the present-day Beijing-based Red Cross Society of China for the period between its founding in 1904 and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, when the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan[8]. Both societies claim to be the legitimate successors of the Chinese Red Cross founded by Shen Dunhe.
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The Society was founded as the "Shanghai International Red Cross Committee" on March 10, 1904. It was established during the Russo-Japanese War. Its founders were a group of Chinese business and political leaders, led by Shanghai tea merchant Shen Dunhe. Shen chose to use the Red Cross aegis for his group because the neutrality provided by the Red Cross symbol allowed Chinese relief teams into the Manchurian war zones to aid Chinese civilians caught in the conflict between Japan and Russia. Shen created a Red Cross organization made up of wealthy Chinese and prominent Westerners living in China. This new Red Cross Society, supported by government officials, Chinese elites and Western medical workers provided aid to more than a quarter of a million people in China’s northeast[9].
After the Russo-Japanese War, it expanded exponentially, now providing peacetime relief as well. There was no shortage of natural disasters in China for the new group to work on. Floods, famine and fire were endemic in the first half of China’s 20th century, along with the constant outbreak of civil war. The Society opened Red Cross hospitals in Shanghai and in other cities, while local Red Cross chapters blossomed throughout the country, staffed and funded by Chinese eager to participate in patriotic activities, particularly as part of an organization with international connections and an aura of "modernity." By the 1920s, there were over 300 Red Cross chapters in China[10].
The ICRC recognized the Society in 1912 after the establishment of the Republic of China. It formally joined the International Federation in 1919 and was one of the first members. During the 1920s, it contributed to help other countries hit by natural disasters. In 1906, during the San Francisco earthquake and fire that killed 3,000 and destroyed the city, it sent 20,000 silver taels to its San Francisco counterpart to help with relief efforts. In 1923, after the great Tokyo earthquake, it sent a relief team, crates of medicines, and almost $20,000 (in 1923 Chinese dollars) to Japan[11]. The Society's leadership from the 1920s-1940s was closely tied with the American and British Red Cross societies, the Kuomintang government and the Shanghai business community. In 1933, while the Second Sino-Japanese War was raging on, the Act of Administrative Rules and Procedures of the Red Cross Society of the Republic of China (中華民國紅十字會管理條例施行細則) was passed, and the Society was renamed Red Cross Society of the Republic of China, its present day name in Taiwan (the Republic of China)[12][13].
The Society was naturally very active during the Second Sino-Japanese War, though its operations were mostly limited to the Kuomintang strongholds in southwest China and some areas under Japanese occupation. Invaluable medical supplies from the United States and the United Kingdom were transferred to it by their American and British counterparts, through Burma and India. Overseas Chinese also raised funds for it, and appeals by Chinese diplomats and advocates around the world convinced the American public to make significant donations to support the Chinese people.
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. Relations between the government and the relief organization were cleared, establishing the duty of assisting the government in the case of a communist invasion, helping the wounded Republic of China Army soldiers, and taking care of prisoners of war. Fiscal exemptions for volunteers were approved. The organization was tasked with provision of basic sanitation and hygiene for the most impoverished members of society, teaching first aid and emergency treatment basics to both adults and children at schools[14].
The national Red Cross Society of Taiwan (Republic of China) meets most of the conditions laid out in Article 4 of the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, except that Taiwan is not a signatory power to the Geneva Conventions. The article, adopted by the 25th International Conference of the Red Cross at Geneva in October 1986 and amended by the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross at Geneva in December 1995 states that[15]:
In order to be recognized by the ICRC as a national society, it shall meet the following conditions:
1. Be constituted on the territory of an independent State where the Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field is in force.
2. Be the only National Red Cross or Red Crescent Society of the said State and be directed by a central body which shall alone be competent to represent it in its dealings with other components of the Movement.
3. Be duly recognized by the legal government of its country on the basis of the Geneva Conventions and of the national legislation as a voluntary aid society, auxiliary to the public authorities in the humanitarian field.
4. Have an autonomous status which allows it to operate in conformity with the Fundamental Principles of the Movement.
5. Use the name and emblem of the Red Cross or Red Crescent in conformity with the Geneva Conventions.
6. Be so organized as to be able to fulfill the tasks defined in its own statutes, including the preparation in peace time for its statutory tasks in case of armed conflict.
7. Extend its activities to the entire territory of the State.
8. Recruit its voluntary members and its staff without consideration of race, sex, class, religion or political opinions.
9. Adhere to the present Statutes, share in the fellowship which unites the components of the Movement and co-operate with them.
10. Respect the Fundamental Principles of the Movement and be guided in its work by the principles of international humanitarian law.
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