The Chinese government has announced a program to ease the burden on some of the country's poorest people. Thirty million Chinese farmers living below the poverty line will soon get access to a new subsidy. Chinese officials say the move is designed to address the plight of the country's poorest farmers who've been left behind by the dramatic economic changes in urban areas.

This is good news for China's farmers.

Civil affairs authorities say it won't be long before the government extends the minimum living subsidy system from cities to the countryside.

That means that all 30 million farmers living under the poverty line set by the government will receive the subsistence allowance in the near future.

For now, the official figure shows that only 4 million of them are covered in some wealthier regions where the system is already in place.

The criteria for the allowance are expected to vary from region to region.

For example, people can receive an annual per capita allowance of 1,000 yuan or about 120 US dollars in Guangdong, one of the richest provinces. But the figure may become less than 300 yuan (US$36) in the western hinterland.

At the same time, the central government is building a cooperative system to offer medical care to the country's farmers. In the next eight years, the system is scheduled to cover all 900 million rural residents-- some 70 percent of China's population.

(CCTV.com October 14, 2003)