Higher education with Chinese characteristics is inherently embedded in both Chinese traditional culture and Chinese modern political culture. This article examines the ontological conception of higher education with Chinese characteristics from both conceptual and political perspectives. First, by illustrating the Government agenda and politics for the construction of higher education with Chinese characteristics, this article explains the particular roles played by individual universities and colleges. The article then moves on to describe the ontological conceptual framework used in identifying higher education with Chinese characteristics for the purpose of showing how higher education with Chinese characteristics differs from Western dominated higher education concepts and models. Both the distinction between the Eastern and Western contexts and the integration of the globalization and localization are involved in construction of the concept of higher education with Chinese characteristic. The final section considers the policy implications for the developing higher education with Chinese characteristics.