The article examines contemporary aspects of the development of public and private higher education in the People’s Republic of China. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that, in recent decades, China’s higher education system has moved from quantitative expansion to a model of qualitative modernization focused on technological development, international competitiveness, and the training of specialists for strategic sectors of the economy. The purpose of the article is to identify the key directions of transformation in the public and private sectors of Chinese higher education and to determine their functional relationship. Based on the analysis of regulatory documents, statistical data, and scholarly literature, the study shows that public universities continue to play a leading role in the higher education system, concentrating the main financial, research, and administrative resources. Private universities, in turn, contribute to expanding access to education, strengthening applied training, and diversifying educational opportunities, while remaining dependent on state regulation and quality control. Special attention is paid to digitalization, internationalization, differentiated funding, and the legal distinction between for-profit and non-profit educational institutions. The article concludes that the contemporary model of higher education in China represents a system of asymmetric interaction between the public and private sectors, in which the leading role of the state is combined with the regulated development of non-state educational initiatives.