Abstract: The globalization and localization of English forms the currently complex context of World Englishes, and causes many English varieties with different cultural characteristics. Under this big social background China English comes into being. Since the concept of "China English" being proposed, it has gone through 38 years, but has not yet been officially recognized and has its own status. Based on World Englishes theory and methodology, this paper examines the roles that English plays in the social life of China, the linguistic forms and the recognition, explores the transformation possibility from performance variety to institutionalized variety. It also analyses the communicative, cultural and identical functions of China English in the context of World Englishes, and justifies the ontological status of China English.