This paper reviews the practices in the teaching of Business English in China over the past 50 years and two perspectives on Business English that have been influential in conceptualizing a new approach to curriculum design. The review demonstrates that there has been an evolution from intuition-led practices to content-based teaching, and to more research-based practices. Two perspectives, ESP and business discourse studies, have both contributed insights into Business English and have led us to a working definition of Business English. On the basis of this new conceptualization, the paper proposes a tripartite curriculum for teaching Business English, which aims to cultivate business expertise rather than just teaching language skills and discrete knowledge of the subject areas as is often promoted in the ESP literature.