John Wong is Research Director of the East Asian Institute (EAI) of the National University of Singapore (NUS). He was formerly Director of the Institute of East Asian Political Economy (IEAPE), Singapore (1990–96). Prior to this, he taught Economics at the University of Hong Kong (1966–71) and then NUS (1971–1990). He also taught briefly at Florida State University as a Fulbright Visiting Professor in 1979. He has visiting appointments with Harvard's Fairbank Center, Yale's Economic Growth Center, Oxford's St. Anthony College, and Stanford University. In 1996, he held the Chair of ASEAN Studies at the University of Toronto. He has done consultancy work for the Singapore government and many international organizations, including UN ESCAP, ADB, UNIDO, and APO. He serves on the editorial board of many learned journals on Asian studies and economic development. He has written and edited 28 books, and published over 400 articles and papers on the development of China and other East Asian economies, including ASEAN. He obtained his PhD in Economics from London in 1966.

Bo Zhiyue is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute of the National University of Singapore. He obtained his Bachelor of Law and Master of Law from Peking University and PhD from the University of Chicago. He has taught at Beijing University, Roosevelt University, the University of Chicago, American University, St. John Fisher College, Tarleton State University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a recipient of the Trustees' Distinguished Scholar Award at St. John Fisher College and the inaugural holder of the Joe and Theresa Long Endowed Chair in Social Science at Tarleton State University. His research interests include China's elite politics, Chinese provincial leaders, central–local relations, and crossstrait relations. He is the author of Chinese Provincial Leaders: Economic Performance and Political Mobility since 1949 (Armonk, NY: M E Sharpe, 2002), China's Elite Politics: Political Transition and Power Balancing (Singapore: World Scientific, 2007), and China's Elite Politics: Governance and Democratization (Singapore: World Scientific, forthcoming).

This book provides a fascinating perspective of the experiences of China's reform in the past three decades by focusing on China's interaction with and learning from the external world in her unprecedented efforts to reform and open up. After three introductory chapters on broad scope of reform in the political, economic, and social realms, this book deals with lessons from the Eastern Bloc, China's reform in East Asian context, and China and the developed world. The book concludes with two chapters looking to the future of China's political and economic development. In the existing literature of China's reform experience, this book is unique in perspective, topic selection, and in-depth analyses. With contributions from a group of prominent scholars in the field of China studies such as John Wong, Zheng Yongnian, Thomas P Bernstein, Dorothy J Solinger, and Bo Zhiyue, it will be of immense value to anyone who is interested in China.