Outsider's insight into China's opening-up

When I heard that American writer Robert Lawrence Kuhn's latest book on China was published in Chinese at the end of last year, I was most eager to read the work. Kuhn is known first as a banker, but he has published more than 20 books, including many heavyweights on China.

I have to admit that although I grew up with China's reform and opening-up and feel deeply about this moment in history, I have never seriously reflected on its historical importance. Hence Kuhn's The Inside Story of China's 30-Year Reform: How China's Leaders Think and What This Means for the Future offers an important reference.

It took me some three months to finish the huge book of 500,000 words. When I finally closed it, I asked myself, if I were to write on this topic, would I have such broad vision, passion and dexterity to depict a vivid and majestic painting of China's fundamental changes? Impossible.