On 8 January 2010, a selection named "the Maoda Yuancheng Cup" (the Cup for Distance Education from the University of International Business and Economics) sponsored by the journal of China Distance Education and assisted by the School of Distance Education of the University of International Business and Economics unveiled the result of the ten most influential events on China modern distance education in the past ten years (1999-2009). The selection was guided by

the principle of "large in scale, great in significance, far-reaching in effect and pioneering in feature". The final result was gained through online voting and experts appraisal. Four of them were directly related to the radio and TV universities in China, revealing their role as a main force in the field of distance education.

The following are the ten most influential events on modern distance education in China in the past ten years (1999-2009):

1. The Action Plan for Revitalizing Education in the 21st Century was transmitted to the Ministry of Education after being approved by the State Council and the implementation of the "Modern Distance Education Project" was put forward. （Jan. 1999）
2. "Developing Distance Education and Continuing Education" was written into the report of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and developing modern distance education has become a national strategy and a common consensus in the society. (Oct. 2007)
3. For the first time, the Ministry of Education gave approval to four institutions of higher education to launch the pilot project on modern distance education, and the Open University of China (OUC) was ratified as an experimental university for reform of talent cultivation mode and open education. (Mar. 1999)
4. The Ministry of Education has strengthened the standard management of online education and its quality supervision. Malpractices in school operation of some individual institution of higher education were rectified, and some courses for students in online education were included into the unified national examination scheme.(Jan. 2004)
5. The building of public service system of modern distance education has been started, and a digitalized service innovation system for the digitalized learning platform was explored and established. (Feb. 2003)
6. The Pilot Programme on the Reform of Talent Cultivation Mode and Open Education by the OUC has passed the summative assessment, and the open education has became one of the important forms for promoting distance education and continuing education. (Dec. 2007)
7. The Ministry of Education has begun to implement the construction of the projects of "New Century Network Courses", "National Excellent Courses" and "Digitalized Learning Resources Center for Online Education", to promote the integration and sharing of the quality resources. (From the year 2000 up till now)
8. Great progress has been made in building the "Network on China Education and Scientific Research", the "Next Generation Internet and the Network of Educational Scientific Research" as well as the research and application of key technology in online education. (2006)
9. Tasks on the modern distance education for rural CPC members and cadres and farmer education training, the modern distance education project in rural primary and middle schools all over the country, and "the One-College-Student-for-One-Village Initiative" have been carried out and implemented successively, and obvious achievements have been made in serving the rural areas by means of modern distance education. (From the year 2001 up till now)
10. Chinese enterprises of online education services were successfully listed in the United States, and a great fever of investing in online education has been formed.

By Li Liqun