Prominent topics covered are China's efforts to steer an economic course tailored to and representing what Deng Xiaoping famously described as "socialism with Chinese characteristics"; China's quest for advanced science and technology; China's dealings with international economic institutions, especially the World Bank; China's engagement with other powers, including Japan, the United States, the ASEAN nations, and Europe; and the role of non-governmental organizations, including foreign policy think tanks, exchange groups, and educational institutions, in developing Chinese economic thinking and methodology during this decade.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Chinese Economic Statecraft from 1978 to 1989: The First Decade of Deng Xiaoping's Reforms. By Priscilla ROBERTS.- Chapter 2. Seven Policies That Opened China to the Outside World, 1979-1990. By Lawrence C. REARDON.- Chapter 3. Deng Plays the 'China Card': Deng Xiaoping's Visit to the United States and its Implication for China's New Long March to Modernization. By Lu SUN.- Chapter 4. Toward Technological Statecraft: Revisiting Beijing's Economic Statecraft in the 1980s. By Shu Guang ZHANG and Hua ZHENG.- Chapter 5. The Revival of Management Education in Reform-era China. By Peter E. HAMILTON.- Chapter 6. Deng Xiaoping's Use of Positive Economic Statecraft: The Importance of Securing Long-term Partnerships with Major International Financial Organizations (IFOs). By Kai Yin Allison HAGA.- Chapter 7. Reimagining the Chinese Economy Through Sino-Japanese Engagement in the 1980s. By Wendy LEUTERT.- Chapter 8. China's Reform Era Under Deng Xiaoping, 1978-1989: Impacts on China-ASEAN Relations. By K. S. NATHAN.- Chapter 9. Sino-European Relations in the 1980s: Increasing Engagement in the Shadow of the United States. By Laurens HEMMINGA.- Chapter 10. The Bottleneck of Reform: China's Oil Policy in the 1980s. By Kazushi MINAMI.- Chapter 11. Maoist Soldiers as the Infrastructure of Reform: The People's Liberation Army Engineering Corps in Shenzhen. By Taomo ZHOU.- Chapter 12. Whose Perestroika? Czechoslovak Communists, Deng Xiaoping's Economic Reforms, and Late 1980s Sino-Czechoslovak Relations. By Jan ADAMEC.- Chapter 13. Orchestrating and Mediating New China's International Reintegration: The U.S. Think Tank China Cluster in the 1980s. By Priscilla ROBERTS.- Chapter 14. The Reform Era Foreign Policy Narrative: 1978 Onward. By Kerry BROWN.