Book excerpt: In this landmark project, Professor Zhang and Professor Moratto piece together the history of how conference interpreting developed as a profession in China after the reform and opening up of the late 1970s. Based on interviews with the alumni of the early efforts to develop conference interpreting capabilities between Chinese and English (and French), the authors illuminate the international programs and relationships which were instrumental in bringing this about. While paying tribute to the earliest interpreters who interpreted for the first-generation CPC leaders including Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping, they track key cooperative projects between Chinese ministries and both the United Nations and European Union, as well as China’s domestic efforts, which developed into today’s formal programs at major universities. An essential resource for scholars and students of conference interpreting in China, alongside its sister volume Conference Interpreting in China: Practice, Training and Research.