WHEN Li Songtang was 17, officials overseeing Mao's chaotic Cultural Revolution sent him from Beijing to Inner Mongolia, a northern province where he became a "barefoot doctor"-a medical worker with rudimentary training. His patients included an academic whom the government had expelled in disgrace from the capital, and who had become terminally ill. The patient grew sicker and increasingly troubled by his political black mark. Unable to console him, Mr Li eventually lied that he had persuaded authorities to wipe the slate clean. The patient grabbed his arm with relief and gratitude, recalls Mr Li. "I can still feel it today".
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