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In 2000, with the help of Hamrin, Yan led a delegation of government officials to see how private American Christians help the poor, disabled, and elderly. Yan circulated his observations in a book, A Glimpse of Charities in the U.S.A.

According to Yan's recently published autobiography, his sympathies toward Christians go back a long way. His father was a YMCA leader in the large northern industrial city of Shenyang. Yan joined the Communist Party as a young man, eventually becoming director of the United Front Department, which determines religious policy in China. He soon joined the government's inner circle of leadership, and sided with the reformers.

Yan rewrote the government's religion policy so that religious people obtained more legal rights. After meeting with Hamrin, then serving in the State Department, Yan approved Billy Graham's visit to China in 1988.

But government hardliners considered Yan too liberal. When Yan's negotiations with the students during the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy demonstration broke down, the hardliners forced him into retirement.

Today Yan, 72, is making a comeback, but Chinese hardliners are opposing his efforts again.

"The ultra-leftists believe that the government should take care of these problems and that public welfare should replace [private] charity," he says. A researcher in a central government think tank said hardliners believe that "all NGOS are a bunch of troublemakers."

Yan and many other Chinese officials see things differently, partly because of the track record of NGOS. In early September torrential rains hit Shaanxi, destroying 110,000 houses. World Vision was the first international NGO on the scene, delivering quilts, jackets, and shoes.

"There will be no more" government-organized charities by the end of next year, Yan said.

The need for help, however, is going to grow. A poor man living near the beggar boy's turf used a pile of magazines as his blanket each night. "I need help," he told CT. "I'm not a troublemaker. I need to eat—it's that simple."

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

More information about Carol Hamrin is available on the website of the Institute for Global Engagement where there is also more information about China.

The China Charity Foundation website is available in Chinese.

Other CT articles on China include:

'Dangerous' Chinese Bill Is Thwarted | Article 23 would have automatically banned Hong Kong groups now outlawed on the mainland. (Aug, 21, 2003)

Breakthrough Dancing | A look at the one of the most creative youth ministries in Hong Kong—if not the world. (July 23, 2003)

Hit by the SARS Tornado | Breakthrough reacted quickly when the disease hit Hong Kong. (July 23, 2003)

Inside CT: Chinese Puzzle | Things are changing for China's church. (March 07, 2003)

Under Suspicion | Hong Kong's Christians fear antisedition measures will curb religious liberty. (Feb. 21, 2003)

Did Apostles Go to China? | Evidence suggests Christianity reached China in the first century. (Oct. 21, 2002)

Working with the Communists | Some evangelicals minister happily within China's state-supervised Three Self church. (Oct. 18, 2002)

Bush: 'I'm One of Them' | Religious persecution allegations set the stage for George Bush's visit to China. (Feb. 27, 2002)

'New' China: Same Old Tricks | Top communists, despite their denials, endorse arrest and torture of Chinese Christians by the thousands. (Feb 15, 2002)

The Unlikely Activist | How a bitter atheist helped besieged Christians—and became a believer. (Feb. 15, 2002)

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November 2003, Vol. 47, No. 11