This Day, That Year

Item from July 8, 1996, in China Daily: A group of singers with physical disabilities celebrate in Beijing over the weekend. They won a singing contest organized by the Beijing Federation of the Disabled.

All possible steps should be taken to enable the country's 60 million disabled people "to participate equally in the nation's social life and share its physical and cultural successes", Xiang Zicheng, a member of China's top legislature, said yesterday in Beijing ... One way to accomplish that is to implement the new Second Five-Year National Plan for the Disabled (1996-2000), which outlines rehabilitation, employment, education, cultural life, supply of daily necessities and legal protection, Xiang said.

There are about 85 million people with disabilities in the country, according to official figures.