Compared with the status of bilingual education (BE) in the People's Republic of China, much more is known about its development in European and American countries of the North (Feng 2007, vii). The traditional form of BE in this country presents 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. In order to assess the extent to which this form of BE is beneficial, it is necessary to consider the individual and social opportunities and costs of bilingual education, particularly related to English proficiency. This essay will examine the social, economic and cultural benefits of Chinese-English bilingual education and attempt to analyze their importance to China. The established model of BE in China, called "language maintenance" or "heritage language", represents the use of linguistic minority students' native language as the primary language of instruction, usually in schools, sometimes in other educational institutions (Baker and Prys 1998, 508). This form of bilingual education pursues two main objectives: preserving 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 from standard Chinese [i.e. , Putonghua or Mandarin Chinese]” and facilitate their process of integration into the dominant culture (Feng 2005, 529, cited in He 2011, 92). However, over the past 20 years, trends in language learning have changed significantly in favor of studying English as a foreign language,...... middle of paper ..... . in the classroom and apply it in the subsequent educational process (Tong and Shi, 2012, 169-170). In conclusion, it was stated that due to the vital importance in the face of global challenges facing the country, Chinese-English bilingual education represents an important issue in Chinese education. Assuming all the arguments discussed in this essay, one could suggest that this form of EB appears to bring economic, professional, and cultural benefits to Chinese society due to the increase in English proficiency among the population . However, it was also noted that today Chinese-English BE faces three main challenges in its promotion, but all of them already have solutions available. Therefore, large-scale implementation of bilingual education in China might cost the government time, but appears to have considerable benefits that could benefit the country in the foreseeable future..