GUANGZHOU - The southern Chinese province of Guangdong has announced it will provide financial assistance to returned overseas Chinese living below the poverty line, with each qualified person being offered at least 500 yuan ($79) every year.

The financial aid is part of a poverty-relief program initiated in 2010 to aid returned overseas Chinese, whose ancestors emigrated to other countries, according to a document jointly released by the provincial Department of Finance and the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Affairs Office.

Under the program, the government will raise 7 million yuan each year, which will also be used for grants to college students from destitute overseas Chinese families, and for temporary financial aid to those who had suffered from illness, natural disasters or other accidents.

More than 100,000 returned overseas Chinese currently live in Guangdong.