Ice and Flame: The Story of Cai Lei

Cai Lei: A Profile

An alumnus of the Central University of Finance and Economics, Cai Lei is a well-known Chinese tax and finance expert, a pioneer of electronic invoices, and a leading advocate for people with rare diseases. He spent half his life in the business world. A diligent student from a young age, he built a career serving in tax agencies and working at Samsung and Vanke before joining JD.com in his prime. With extraordinary perseverance and professional resolve, he brought China's first electronic invoice into use and transformed the country's tax and finance systems through digitalization. He is hailed as the father of electronic invoicing.

At the height of his career, with his family life complete, Cai Lei was struck by a devastating diagnosis at the age of forty-one: ALS. For more than two centuries, medical science has had no cure for this terminal disease, and patients have only a few years to live. Plunging suddenly from the heights of the business world into desperation, he shed the trappings of success and put fame and wealth aside, launching a courageous assault on the icy barriers of medical science with a failing body.

He poured his entire fortune into building the world's largest ALS patient database and brought together leading research teams to advance the development of hundreds of drug candidates. He worked tirelessly, clearing obstacles and blazing a trail. As his body gradually froze, from losing strength in his fingers and becoming paralyzed in his arms to losing his voice and speech, he continued working at his desk around the clock using an eye-tracking device, even when only his eyes could move.

He believed in hard work throughout his life. Fate took his health and the years he had left, but it could not take away his sense of responsibility or his sincerity. He did not seek to save himself, but to help others. With his failing body, he has opened a way forward for hundreds of thousands of people with rare diseases. A mere mortal doing heroic things, he has written one of the most moving stories of a life in our time.