Following the 1976 Tangshan earthquake, the ROC mobilized the FCRA to organize disaster relief operations in the areas of Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan. The FCRA collaborated with the Bank of Taiwan to provide a large quantity of donated humanitarian aid and food items from the people of Taiwan and organized bulk shipments via the International Red Cross to be distributed in the mainland. Beijing refused the aid shipments and the FCRA decided to launch the aid parcels directly to the mainland using unmanned balloons in collaboration with the Ministry of National Defense. These actions apparently triggered the scrambling of MiG interceptors tasked with shooting down the balloons. ROC Ambassador to the U.S. James Shen confirmed ROC actions to provide mainland disaster relief: