This study reviews the development of public relations in China over the past ten years after SARS from the socio-historical perspective. It proposes that risk society and modernity reconstruction constitute the context of Chinese public relations evolution and the paradigm has shifted to dialogue in the era of internet. SARS heralds the emergence of risk society, thus leads to the emphasis on public relations that focuses on communication, dialogue and trust, particularly crisis communication management. The solution to the crisis of modernity is to reconstruct modernity through dialogue, particularly balance instrumental rationality and value rationality. In this context, the approach of public relations in China after SARS shifts from subjectivity to inter-subjectivity and from publicity to dialogue. Public relations in this period focus on crisis management through dialogue, value-based consensus and re-construction of community.