Former insurance head arrested for bribery

Xiao Xing, former deputy general manager of State-owned China Taiping Insurance Holdings, has been arrested on suspicion of bribe-taking, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Friday. The arrest decision was made by the Henan Provincial People's Procuratorate, as designated by the SPP, following the conclusion of an investigation by the National Commission of Supervision. According to an earlier release by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision, Xiao was found to have violated regulations by accepting gifts and cash, and attending banquets and travel activities that could influence the fair execution of official duties.

Red Cross allocates 1.5 bln yuan for relief

The Red Cross Society of China said on Friday it had responded to emergencies 21 times in the course of 2023, dispatching 172 rescue teams to emergency front lines and allocating over 1.53 billion yuan ($215 million) in money and supplies for disaster relief. The society added that as a result of RCSC efforts to improve the regional cooperation mechanism for Red Cross emergency rescue, a new emergency rescue pattern featuring unified command from the RCSC, as well as coordination and cooperation among Red Cross organizations of different Chinese regions, had been established. This improved regional cooperation mechanism played a crucial role in relief operations last year, including the geological disaster in Wanzhou in Chongqing, the floods in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Jishishan in Gansu province, the RCSC said.