Shen Zhanglin was fearful for his  family's financial security when he was made redundant from a  clothing factory in east China's Anhui Province, but government  allowances helped to ease the strain of unemployment.

"Our life is guaranteed with minimum living subsidies and the  government shows more and more concern for needy people," said a  relieved Shen.

Shen, 50, and his wife were made redundant six years ago from a fashion factory in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province, which put the family under great pressure. In April 2001, they got minimum  living subsidies from the local government of 380 yuan (45.9 US  dollars) a month, much higher than their original living subsidy  of 160 yuan (19.3 US dollars) per month.

Over 20 million urban needy people like Shen receive minimum  living subsidies from the government in China and the minimum  living subsidy system covers all the urban impoverished in China,  compared with 1998 when only 1.84 million people in China enjoyed  the allowances.

The Chinese government is becoming more concerned with  standards of living as the economy sees rapid growth. Employment,  re-employment, social security, health, education and poverty have all been listed as the key tasks of the government.

Government meetings and documents are increasingly concerned  with standards of living issues. This year, the Anhui provincial  government has issued 31 documents on subsistence allowances,  rural medical care and re-employment of laid-off workers.

"My schedule now gives more time to people's living  difficulties. It has become my key task to solve my people's  problems in making a living," said Hua Jianhui, mayor of Bengbu  City in Anhui.

Job creation has become the primary goal and function of  Chinese governments at all levels. Northeast China's Liaoning  Province, which has a large number of unemployed, has set jobs as  the priority standard to evaluate government performance since  2002. The province set 43 more items out of the employment work as evaluation standards this year.

Statistics show that China has had over 27 million workers laid off from the state sector since 1998. About 18 million of them  have found jobs with help from local governments. China has  included job creation in its economic and social development plans.
China is also stepping up the establishment of a social  security system while promoting employment. Statistics from the  National Statistics Bureau show that by 2002, China had 140 million people involved in endowment insurance and 100 million in  unemployment insurance. Medical insurance has spread to most areas with 94 million people involved.

Government departments spend more on public issues related to living standards, including rural needy people, social welfare, compulsory education and public health. Statistics show that China spent 9.5 times more money on social security in 2002 than in 1997, with an average yearly increase of 56.9 percent. accounting for 136.2 billion yuan (16.5 billion US dollars) from the central government, up 38.6 percent than 2001. This year, the central government plans to spend 17.7 billion yuan (2.1 billion US dollars) more in social security.

China formulated more policies and regulations concerning living standards in recent years. Employment support, social security and social support for the needy are being standardized with legislation. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security has issued a series of favorable policies on re-employment, concerning tax reductions and small loans.

Helping the rural population out of poverty is a pressing task for the government. China will have invested 29.9 billion yuan (3. 6 billion US dollars) in 2003, 800 million yuan (96.7 million US dollars) more than 2002, to help the rural needy. About 124.5 billion yuan (15 billion US dollars) has been spent on the rural needy since 1998, which helped to reduce the ratio of poor residents in rural areas from 5.4 percent to three percent.

A cooperative medical care system has also started in rural areas this year and is expected to cover the whole rural population by 2010. The new system will relieve farmers of the heavy economic burden caused by diseases. The government is also exerting great efforts to establish the system of social endowment insurance and minimum life subsidies in rural areas.

The greater concern for living standards indicated the government attached equal importance to economic growth and social development, which marked China was moving towards a government of public service, said Du Gangjian, professor of the China State Administrative College.