Abstract: The exploration of the target mode for China’s reform has gone through a winding path: from the initial stage without clear target by blindly learning from Yugoslavia and Hungary, to the 1980s when someone proposed to set Japan and Germany as a model, then to the 1990s when the American mode was advocated. It is after the occurrence of the three great happenings, i.e. the fall of the former Soviet Union, the serious economic crisis in the USA and the growth miracle of China, that Chinese people come to realize that the target mode-the new system to be established for China’s reform-should be the combination of the socialism market economy and the socialism democracy ruled by law.

Key words: reform of China；target mode；new system