A highly skilled surgical team relies on a standardized training system and the most important subject in the development of general surgery in China is to set up standardized education and training systems for surgeons. This article reviews the history of the training of residents, delineates the current situation and problems of residency training in general surgery, and discusses reform and future development of surgical training systems and assessment of competence in surgical practice, in order to put forward the solutions and countermeasures. China needs a large number of highly trained surgeons to improve its medical care system, and some fundamental changes of its residency training system, especially in the field of surgical education, have been made. All of the experts working in this area sum up the historical experience and apply the advanced experience of foreign countries as a reference to build up a surgical education system with Chinese characteristics to achieve a continuous, sound, and rapid development of surgical education in China.