This collection of speeches was assembled and prepared for publication under the auspices of Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development at the request of Du Runsheng and the former Rural Development Research Center (RDRC) of the State Council, People's Republic of China. Discussions with the RDRC were carried out by James E. Nickum who served as the China representative of Win rock International in Beijing from March 1986 to June 1988. Chinese texts ofthe speeches and rough translations of about half of them were provided to Dr Nickum by the staff of the RDRC. With the "assistance of J. Ray Bowen III, translations of the remaining speeches were commissioned in Beijing. Janet Sturgeon, Program Officer in charge of the Winrock International China Program, supervised the entire project and personally transported the Chinese texts and rough translations from Beijing to the United States in the summer of 1988. All of the translations were then checked against the Chinese texts and revised for linguistic and economic accuracy by the editor.