The Chinese government spent nearly 8 billion RMB ($1.15 billion) on disaster relief in 2016, securing the daily necessities of nearly 190 million people, the country's Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) has announced.

Statistics show that the population of left-behind children in rural areas has reached 9.02 million. In the last year, China has spent nearly 2 billion RMB to support orphans, benefiting 502,000 homeless children, some of who also suffer from AIDS.

More than 60 million people in China are currently living on government allowances, and more than 75 percent of that number reside in rural areas. In the first 11 months of 2016, the expenditure on such allowances totaled 88.48 billion RMB, increasing by 8.19 billion from 2015. By the end of November 2016, the annual allowance per capita in rural areas increased by 17.8 percent to 3,611 RMB.

Based on MCA's projected demand for aid during winter and spring, the ministry has allocated 5.71 billion RMB for disaster relief. Eight percent of the subsidy has already been received by people in need.