This book chronicles the dramatic events that have taken place since China opened up to the world in 1978 and adopted a policy of economic reform. It records how economic policies were drafted between 1992 and 2004, brought into law, initiated and then implemented. It vividly relates the history of reform from the beginning of the rural household contract responsibility system to the expansion of enterprise autonomy in cities and the gradual liberalization of prices of goods and services. The book covers the founding of Deng Xiaoping's reform theory and the establishment of a socialist market economic system.