This book is dedicated to all those who have contributed to China’s dramaticrise, which haschanged the lot of one-fifth of mankind forever, and to the visionary architect of this rise, China’s late leader Deng Xiaoping, whom I had the privilege to serve as an English interpreter in the mid- 1980s and whose many ideas have inspired me to write this book. I owe an intellectual debt to many individuals and it is impossible to mention all of them, but I should thank those individuals, some of whom are also personal friends, who shared their perspectives with me on various issues discussed in the book. These individuals include Li Junru of the Central Party School; Eric Li, Jin Zhongwei and Sha Ye of the Chunqiu Institute; Shi Zhengfu, Chen Ping, Jiang Yihua and Xiao Sijian of Fudan University; Pan Wei of Beijing University; Zhang Wenmu of Beihang University; Wang Shaoguang of the University of Hong Kong; Wang Wen of the Global Times; Ji Guibao of the Wenhui Daily; Francis Fukuyama of Standard University; and Robert Kuhn, the author of How China’s Leaders Think. I would like to express my special gratitude to K. K. Phua, Ho Yi Kai, Dong Lixi and their colleagues at World Scientific and World Century for their invaluable professional support in editing and publishingthis book in English. My heartfelt thanks also go to Chen Xin, Hu Dawei, Shi Hongjun a nd Cai Xin of Shanghai Century Publishing for their dedicated professional assistance in editing and publishing the Chinese edition of the book. I should also thank Pan Xiaoli and H. B. Teng for their linguistic counsel, especially for Xiaoli’s original proposal on the book’s English title. I am most grateful to my wife Hui-Hui and my son Marco Yi-Zhou for their kind understanding and unfailing support. I am alone, however, responsible for any errors that may appear in this book.