This paper is a keynote speech delivered at the National Symposium of Early Childhood Education) held by the Ministry of Education, December 16-19, 2004. In this paper, Jiang Jin first analyzed the difficulties and challenges that China faced in the development of early childhood education (ECE), including the partially dissolved ECE system, neglected rural areas, unregulated private ECE, limited financial input, declining teacher qualifications, and weak administration in all levels of the government. Accordingly, this paper proposed recommendations for future provisions of ECE among young children in China, which include speeding up related legislation, establishment of a socialist market system for ECE, redefining the social service function of ECE, increasing the ECE budget, strengthening government administration, perfecting the professionalism of practitioners, improvement of the supervision system, and the establishment of a scientific quality assurance system.