The China Social Sciences Press recently turned 40. To mark the event, 300 scholars and publishing professionals from around the world gathered in Beijing to celebrate.

For Liu Binjie, former publishing minister and now director-general of the Publishers Association of China, the setting up of the publishing house came at a key moment when China was adjusting its road ahead, emancipating minds, and was launching the reform and opening up.

During the social transformation of the past four decades, the publishing house has been a witness and a maker of history, he says.

"It (the publishing house) established itself as the top name for Chinese academic achievements in social sciences, globally," says Liu.

Its first book was Productivity Improvement-published in September 1978-which was a translation of a speech by Donald C Burnham at Carnegie-Mellon University.