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This article explores the development of China's international talent policy (ITP) during 1978–2020. An analytical framework is constructed to track the profound changes of ITP and examine the main driving forces for these changes. Four main phases of ITP development are identified through analyzing significant changes in the four core components of China's ITP, including guiding frameworks, hierarchy of goals, policy instruments, and governance institutions. The driving forces mainly include crises and policy problems, the authoritative CCP leadership, and government responses to crises/problems. It is concluded that the stable and authoritative leadership in a centralized government is the key to profound policy changes without fundamentally shifting the ultimate policy goal, but lacking societal forces can be problematic especially when the government role becomes weakened. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]