An outlandish imbroglio involving a former Shenzhen karaoke champion, her Hermes handbags, a fictitious chamber of commerce and a gang of microblog super-sleuths, has dealt an unexpectedly fierce blow to the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC).
In the space of just a couple of weeks, pictures of a 20-year-old girl sprawled across a convertible Maserati have generated a string of revelations that have ultimately tormented one of China’s largest and oldest charitable organisations.
Thousands of donors, operating on a “no smoke without fire” principle, have said they will never give to the RSCS again and left an organisation long affiliated with the International Red Cross defending its reputation against allegations of sharp practice.
The scandal erupted from the web postings of Guo Meiling, a “C-class model” known online as Guo Meimei Baby.
Her sole claim to fame appears to have been her victory in the obscure 2008 Holiday Men’s Karaoke Competition of Shenzhen.
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In an apparent attempt to show off her wealth, she posted pictures of herself posing with flashy cars and designer handbags on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
All would have been passed off as tacky ostentation, except that along with the trinkets came the claim that she was also the general manager of the Red Cross Chamber of Commerce.
Weibo users, ever alert to the sniff of corruption, were immediately hot on her trail: the coincidence of charitable work and fabulous opulence rarely sit comfortably on Weibo and in a country already embittered by the yawning wealth gap. The fact that she appeared to share the same surname as the vice-president of the RSCS, Guo Changjiang, only fanned the flames of suspicion that something rotten was afoot.
With hundreds of netizens now joining the crusade for answers, the intrigue deepened. Guo Meimei was forced into making statements about the relationship of the Red Cross Chamber of Commerce to the real Red Cross charity before admitting that the entire company was made up. At one point, she attempted to blame the fabrication on a younger sister that nobody believes exists.
The RSCS, nervous about the battering its reputation was taking, was forced to make a statement denying that it knew anything about the Red Cross Chamber of Commerce.
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Mr Guo, it added, did not have a daughter - with or without a Maserati.
But even then, the Weibo bloodhound was not satisfied and the pursuit continued, now with the Red Cross and its reputation for opaqueness in its sights. And the hunch seems to have paid off. Guo Meimei, it emerged, has a high-rolling investor boyfriend who yesterday resigned as the board member of a charity company with direct links to a subsidiary of the RSCS.
No guilt was admitted, but the RSCS said it had frozen all activities of the subsidiary in question - Red Cross China Business System.
For the Red Cross Society of China, the timing of all this could not be worse.
The charity is already under pressure to respond to allegations of donation mismanagement and to offer more detailed comments on the mysterious death last week of a Red Cross officer facing an investigation for misappropriation of funds.
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The scandal has also demonstrated beyond doubt how far Weibo has changed the way in which the country looks at itself.
Triumphant Weibo users yesterday claimed that China finally has an attack dog working for the people, rather than the powerful.
For Communist Party leaders in Beijing, who are desperate to appear tough on the corruption that is endemic, the power of Weibo is especially formidable.
Via its 140 million users, more corruption is being brought to light and officials can do less to conceal it.