In 2018 I was invited to play a lead role in the development of a four-level English course for non-English majors in Chinese universities. The course is a collaboration between a major international ESL publisher and a leading university textbook publisher in China. In this presentation I will describe the background to the project and the processes involved as the course moves from conception to development. Examples will be given of how the context for an course shapes the course design process and of the kinds of issues publishers and textbook writers have to resolve in developing ESL materials for the Chinese market.