From impoverished families to victims of winter blizzards, millions of China's needy have received government charity in cash, food and clothing in a Spring Festival campaign for "warmth and love."
The annual government-funded charity program, which aims at "sending warmth and love" to the needy in the Chinese Lunar New Year, is the world's largest in terms of the number of beneficiaries.
Over 240 million yuan (US$30 million) in funds, quilts and clothes from donations nationwide have been given to over 20 million people so far this year, according to the central civil affairs department.
The program has been recognized by the World Federation of Trade Unions as China's contribution to world poverty relief.
"The alms of staple foods, meat and eggs are really a timely gift. Without it, I'd have been ashamed to have nothing decent on the festive table," said Huang Zhenhua, a laid-off factory worker in Shanghai.
The jobless worker, receiving the government's minimum living allowance in China's most advanced metropolis, has less than US$125 of family income a month.
The national charity program usually starts one month before the Spring Festival, the most important time of a year for Chinese. It features family reunions and praying for peace and harmony.
Launched by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions over a dozen years ago, the annual charity program has been extended by Chinese governments at all levels.
They aim to give care and material support to 60 million victims of natural disasters, 20 million urbanites at the poverty line, and 75 million rural residents who are impoverished.
"Aiding the needy has always been a traditional Chinese virtue," said Lu Xiaowen, a research fellow with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
"The Spring Festival alms program embodies a combination of the virtue and the political ideology of the ruling Communist Party of China," said Lu.
He said the government program has been effective in calling on people from all walks of life to aid the needy.
Last December, Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, took the lead in making donations from central authorities and army headquarters in the "sending warmth and love" drive.
(Xinhua)