BEIJING — China had included 253,000 unsupported children — children with parents who are unable to care for them — in a special security system as of the end of 2020, said an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Jan 25.

A monthly subsistence allowance of 1,140 yuan (about $176) is provided per child, the same allowance that orphans are provided, said Ni Chunxia, deputy director of the ministry's child welfare department, at a press conference.

Ni clearly defined the country's "unsupported child" classification at the same press conference.

Children are considered unsupported if their parents are both seriously disabled, seriously ill, in prison, in drug rehabilitation, missing or subject to other measures restricting their personal freedom, or if they have had their guardianship revoked or been repatriated (expelled) from the country, or where one parent is dead or missing and the other parent is in one of the eight outlined circumstances.

Statistics show that 45.1 percent of the 253,000 unsupported children are those with one parent dead and the other missing, severely disabled or in one of the other circumstances mentioned above, according to Ni. Children whose parents are both seriously disabled account for 27.4 percent, and those whose parents are in prison take up 8.3 percent.

In terms of regional distribution, 85 percent of unsupported children are residents in rural areas, she said.