Red Cross and Red Crescent East Asian Office was established in Beijing on Wednesday evening. The Office's general secretary said at the inaugural ceremony that with the founding of Beijing Office Red Cross and Red Crescent will greatly expand network to cover 176 countries and over 100 million volunteer workers in the Asia-Pacific region.

The East Asian Office's work, he said, will extend to China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Japan.

Sources say a total of US$300 million of assistance had been used to aid 30 million people last year.