Compared to the status of bilingual education (BE) in the People's Republic of China, much more is known about its development in countries in Europe and North America (Feng 2007, vii) . The traditional form of BE in this country has many varieties determined by the educational context of the students and the diversity of languages ​​spoken in the regions. At the same time, Chinese-English bilingual education is becoming increasingly popular in China due to the significant global challenges facing the country. To evaluate to what extent this form of BE is beneficial it is necessary to consider the individual and social opportunities and costs of bilingual education, in particular related to knowledge of the English language. This essay will examine the social, economic and cultural benefits of Chinese-English bilingual education and attempt to analyze their importance for China. The established model of BE in China, called “language maintenance” or “heritage language” bilingual education, represents the use of the mother tongue by language minority students as the primary language of instruction, typically, in schools, sometimes in other educational institutions (Baker and Prys 1998, 508). This form of bilingual education pursues two main objectives: to support the native language of students from different ethnic minorities (e.g., Korean, Mongolian, Zhuang, Tibetan, Miao, Sala) through “the use of a native minority language and Chinese standard [i.e., Putonghua or Mandarin Chinese]” and facilitate their process of integration into mainstream culture (Feng 2005, 529, cited in He 2011, 92). However, during the last 20 years language learning trends have changed significantly in favor of studying English as a foreign language, ...... middle of paper ...... in the classroom and applying it in further educational process (Tong and Shi, 2012, 169-170). In conclusion, it was argued that due to the vital global challenges facing the country, Chinese-English bilingual education represents a significant problem in Chinese education. Taking all the arguments discussed in this essay it could be suggested that this form of BE appears to provide economic, employment and cultural benefits to Chinese society due to the increase in English language proficiency among the population. However, it was also noted that Chinese-English BE faces three major challenges in its promotion today, but solutions are already available for all of them. Therefore, the widespread implementation of bilingual education in China may cost the government time, but it appears to have significant advantages that could benefit the country in the near future..