The Chinese edition of China Builds for Democracy, a book written by late American writer Helen Foster Snow about the country's industrial cooperative movement in 1937-45 wartime years, debuted on Saturday, 66 years after its first publication.

The Chinese version made its debut in Baoji City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where the first industrial cooperative was founded in August 1938.

The translation of the book was finished 17 years ago, but it had not been published due to various reasons including lack of money, translators said.

The book was first published in 1941 in the United States.

Helen Foster Snow, a long-time friend of Chinese people, was the former wife of the late Edgar Snow who was famous as the author of Red Star Over China.

Helen Snow came to China in 1931 when she was 23. She and Edgar Snow visited many areas led by the Communist Party of China during wartime. They were also among the initiators of the then industrial cooperative movement.

Helen Snow died in 1997 and Edgar Snow died in 1972.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2007)