This study concentrates on the three phases of China's de facto higher education quasi-decentralization since 1949 and center-local relations during each of the phases. The three phases are: (1) the phase of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when provincial-level control was enhanced; (2) the phase of the late 1990s and early 2000s, when "independent colleges" and people-run institutions were established; and (3) the present phase which is ongoing since the mid-2000s, when elite Sino-foreign joint institutions (e.g., NYU Shanghai) and young elite research institutions (e.g., ShanghaiTech and Westlake University) were approved. To investigate the diversification and proliferation of higher education institutions in each phase, a theoretical framework has been constructed based on Zheng's (De facto federalism in China: reforms and dynamics of central-local relations, World Scientific, Singapore, 2007) argument of China's de facto federalism. As macro-level contexts, China's principal philosophies of higher education development and the interrelations between China's higher education system and the outside world during each phase have been briefly reviewed. It suggests that local governments and higher education institutions in China may attempt to play more active roles in promoting de jure higher education decentralization.