Abstract: The paper studies the compilation and publication of general Chinese-English dictionaries in China over the past 30 years. After a brief introduction of the status quo of them, the author argues that although these dictionaries claim to be a learners’ dictionary especially made for Chinese students, they are far from satisfactory in providing adequate information to meet their needs for encoding. On the basis of the survey and analysis, suggestions are put forward to improve the publication of Chinese-English dictionaries.