Along with its rapid economic growth, increasing urbanization, and accelerating integration into the world market, China has experienced rapid transformation of its food value chains. There has been a surge in the number of its supermarkets and hypermarkets. The advent and rapid expansion of the modern self-service store has transformed the organization of and relations between the institutional actors of China’s agri-food systems. At the same time, increasing migration and off-farm employment coupled with increasing input costs, for inputs such as labor and energy, have pushed farmers to expand in order to achieve scale economies. The emergence of agri-food value chains is considered to be a potential market integration opportunity for promoting smallholder agricultural and rural development in China. However, many questions need to be addressed in order to maximize the benefits of these developments, including: What are the key drivers of this rapid transformation? Are there any risks for small producers and the rural poor? What barriers do smallholders face in accessing such emerging markets? What is the nature of the emerging opportunities for smallholders? How can smallholders adapt to overcome the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities? In addition, what are the existing or emerging inclusive value chains for rural and agricultural producers in China that could benefit the small farmer and the rural poor if they were to get engaged in them? How can development projects funded by governments and international financial institutions ensure that the development of agri-food value chains benefit small producers and the rural poor?