This paper analyzes how China has managed to embrace mass higher education in a short timeline, and examines how far this move has followed the existing or established patterns elsewhere through comparing its core aspects with those of four identifiable models of mass higher education: the American model, the Western European model, the Latin American model and the East Asian model. While acknowledging that the current structure of the Chinese higher education system appears to resemble the American in many ways, this paper concludes that it is fundamentally different from the American model, as well as from the Western European and the Latin American models. Largely mirroring the East Asian model, the Chinese approach features a strong sense of "state instrumentism" and is also characterized by integral tensions among its various sectors, which could turn into either positive dynamics for vibrant growth or negative forces leading to serious social justice and equity issues. After enjoying an unprecedented expansion between 1999 and 2006, Chinese higher education has come to a historical juncture to reconsider its success in the light of more collaborative and normative ideologies, such as those grounded in social justice and human potential. (Contains 2 figures, 3 tables and 5 notes.)