As an external review mechanism, accreditation has played a positive global role in quality assurance and promotion of educational reform. Accreditation systems for medical education have been developed in more than 100 countries including China. In the past decade, Chinese standards for basic medical education have been issued together with guidelines for accrediting medical schools, an accreditation committee system has been established, a cohort of assessors has been trained, and a first round of accreditation visits has commenced. Although the national accreditation system in China is now operating within a legal framework as a voluntary process, the system needs further improvements to ensure sustainability and recognition by the international community. To fulfill the objective of completing the first round of medical education accreditation nationwide by 2020, more qualified assessors have to be trained, present policies and processes must be refined, and incentives must be developed to encourage all schools to undergo accreditation.