This paper focuses on bilingual education in international schools in mainland China from the child development perspective. It first elaborates on the current state of bilingual education worldwide and the policy for international schools in mainland China. Then, it analyzes the value of bilingual education, including its advantages for child development like improving cross – cultural competence, L2 mastery, and cognitive skills. However, barriers such as people’s concerns, policy constraints, and resource deficiencies exist. To address these, the paper recommends promoting bilingual education through legislation, changing social attitudes, and accelerating teacher training and materials development. Overall, bilingual education is significant but requires continuous efforts for development.