If life in China’s impoverished regions was difficult for healthy people, I can’t imagine what it was like for those with illnesses or physical or emotional challenges. I’d sure many have felt like my wife’s friend in Shenyang, Dr. Zhang Xu (张栩), who, after a diving accident in Africa, became a quadriplegic and wanted to kill himself because of his burden on family and society. But he stuck it out, and today runs the Anshan Bethesda Rehabilitation Center, which he started to help others like himself, and to train their families how to care for them. I’ve marveled as I’ve watched him type emails on his computer by blowing through a straw in his mouth. Such passion!

But in Ningxia I met yet another man whose story was just as moving! (Fig. 11.1)

Fig. 11.1.
A photograph of Prof. William Brown and Xin Baotong seated in a wheelchair in front of a structure.

Prof. William Brown interviewing Xin Baotong, a promoter of charity programs for people with disabilities, in Longde, Ningxia on July 15, 2019. Photo by Jie Shangfeng

Full size image

Mr. Xin Baotong zipped to greet us in his wheelchair, a grin on his face as he welcomed us to their care center for the handicapped. Once a healthy, happy-go-lucky youth full of ambition and dreams, his dreams were shattered when he almost died from a disease and was invalided—but today, thanks to local Party leadership’s compassion and encouragement, he is chairman of the Disabled E-commerce Association and has not only risen from poverty but also helped some 1600 other disabled people in his county!

He said that when he fell ill, “My world became a blur, and I felt disconnected from reality, weighed down by both financial and mental pressure. I felt I was at death’s door, and even dreamed that I was in a world of nothingness and that an elderly man who had just died was inviting me to join him. It was so painful.”

Mr. Xin was in Sichuan when he fell ill and ended up in a hospital for an entire year, from January 1 until December. “My three brothers were in school, so our family finances were already very tight. We had no money for medical care. Even with large loans from relatives and friends I could not keep paying the bills. I had to leave the hospital and return home with over RMB300,000 in debt. Our entire family felt helpless and hopeless.”

As if things weren’t bad enough already, his father had a car accident in May 2015, while out working to pay off his son’s debt. Brain damage left him bedridden, unable to move, and the family sank even deeper into debt.

“I had always been very easy-going and cheerful,” Mr. Xin said. “My personal desires were modest, though I always tried to do all things well. I never thought about attitude, but after I got sick, I made an effort to be optimistic and happy for my parents’ sake. But my father’s car accident hit me very hard because I felt I’d caused his accident by not taking care of myself.”

The already hopelessly indebted family could not afford the father’s hospital fees, but a doctor who knew their cousin agreed to perform the urgently needed brain surgery. “Our relatives helped me raise over RMB100,000 in donations and loans,” he said. “But now we were over RMB400,000 in debt.”

His sister had just graduated from Inner Mongolia Normal University when he was struck down by illness. She cared for him until a year later, when she was admitted to Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University as a graduate student.

“We had no money at all, and without government subsistence allowances and services, we’d have never survived. I stayed at home, never going out, feeling worthless. But in 2017 our township’s Party secretary began visiting me and reporting my condition to county leaders, who also came to visit me, and the Party secretary said the county was building a care center for the disabled and that I could live there. I was skeptical, and even thought he might have been lying to me! He made this promise in January 2017, and I waited and waited and then messaged him asking why it had not been built and when it would be built. He replied, very patiently, that I would be the first to know when it was finished. On August 23, 2017, he came personally to my house and said, ‘Get your things ready because tomorrow you and your father will move to the new center’ — and the very next day they took us both to the center!”

“What did you think of your new home?” I asked.

“It was a brand new building! But there were very few people because I was in the first group to live here. Upon my arrival, I saw a brand new building. There were very few people at that time, because I was among the first group of six or seven to move in. There was nothing to do at first, but after about 10 days they set up a workshop where we began making artificial flowers. It felt good to do something useful!”

I visited the workshop and watched half a dozen physically challenged residents making the flowers. Given their physical limitations, I’m sure this venture is not efficient enough to make a profit, but each person was cheerful and proudly showed me their creations—they were so happy, like Mr. Xin, to contribute something back to the society that had done so much for them.

I watched one paraplegic doing graphic designs on a computer. I was amazed at his skills given his limited range of physical motions. I thought of Stephen Hawking, and his brilliant mind trapped in an immobile body. It is easy to assume that people who are physically challenged are also limited emotionally and mentally—but not here. These people were also dreamers.

“After I’d made flowers for about 10 days, the center’s director said he’d heard about my experiences and education background, and he asked if I’d like to work in the office. I was delighted. I earned about RMB1,600 a month and my mother also made about RMB2,300 a month making artificial flowers. After about a year, in December 2018, when the disabled e-commerce service center was established, I was asked to be the chairman of the Disabled E-commerce Association. I balked because I did not think I could do it. It was a big responsibility for helping local disabled people to throw off poverty and prosper, but I had only a year’s relevant experience before I got sick. I was afraid that I could not do a good job, which would hinder the poverty relief work. But when I told them my concerns, the leaders said they would provide assistance, and send people to assist us in such areas as sales and products. So I agreed.”

“Was it as difficult as you feared?”

“In the beginning, I spent a long time each day learning the various details. But now, thanks to the E-commerce Employment Association for the Disabled, I earn over RMB4,000 each month. This was life-changing for both me and my family. I went from huddled at home and penniless to earning a very good salary. And I owe all of this to the care of the Party leaders and the government. Had there been no government-led poverty alleviation efforts, I could have never done so much in only two or three years on my own strength. I am very grateful for their care and help. Between my mother and me, we now earn over RMB6000 a month! I repaid more than RMB100,000 of our debt last year, and I am confident that I can also pay off the rest. It will take a while, though, but I’m not worried. Even if I owed RMB20 million, I am sure I could do it. I’m very confident in the future now, because we have such strong support from the leaders who have proven their care for us.”

“At one point I could not even imagine ever escaping poverty,” Mr. Xin said. “But not only have I prospered but profits from the disability e-commerce platform have helped some 1600 of the county’s disabled people. I feel very honored to be able to do this.”

And I, myself, feel very honored to have met such a dreamer as young Xing Baotong. His story is a good lesson for other poor nations fighting poverty. They can adapt China’s targeted poverty alleviation measures, but even the best policies are not enough unless the leadership can instill hope and passion within the poor, and reawaken the dreams that all of us are born with but few have the hope of achieving.