Historically, the internationalization of higher education in China has formed a development path based on the western paradigm, with individualized elements as the content and colleges as the centre. Belt and Road’s strategy not only challenges the traditional path of internationalization of higher education in China, but also provides an opportunity for transformation and upgrading. In the future, the internationalization of higher education in China should take account of western experience and local experiment on the multipolar territory of east and west, take the mission of helping to carry behaviour, take systematic elements as the content, and take the society as the centre of development. The national conditions and cultural traditions of the countries along the route of “Belt and Road” differ greatly, which requires higher education. In the process of internationalization, we should pay more attention to the local experience, and Belt and Road hopes to form a new region full of vitality and creativity, which provides a new impetus for the emergence of a new generation of “higher education centre”. In view of this, based on the tradition of internationalization of higher education in China and the opportunity provided by Belt and Road, this paper expounds the general trend of internationalization of higher education in China in the future, and probes into the path of transformation and development.