China has established a guaranteed basic living system for residents of all its 668 cities and 1,638 county seats, said Minister of Civil Affairs Doje Cering.

At a meeting attended by provincial civil affairs officials from all over China, Cering said that establishing a guaranteed basic living system for the poor by the end of 1999 has met State Council deadlines.

"This new system will greatly help improve social security in China, promote reform and development of State-owned enterprises, and maintain social stability," said the minister.

China has so far set up eight state-level disaster relief storage houses. Local governments have also set up a number of storage houses.

According to Cering, half of China's provinces have village election committees. In most of the one million villages of China, an open and democratic system for village affairs has been implemented.

In the past year, China's civil affairs departments also collected a total of 4.5 billion yuan (560 million US dollars) of disaster relief and social welfare funds through lottery competitions.