Abstract: Building a more systematic and refined water pollutant emission standard system in China by learning from international advanced experience is the key to realize the continuous improvement of water environment quality.The development history of the US and China′s water pollutant emission standard system was summarized and compared.The results show that the US has formed a system management model based on river basins; China′s water pollutant emission standard system has changed from a decentralized point source treatment to a system coordinated management mode, but in the process of transformation, there are problems such as the insufficiency of single governance means, the continuous tightening of emission limits and the lack of integration of existing important systems.On this foundation, based on the new ideas from the published emission standards for water pollutants in the Daqing River Basin and the requirements of deep integration of water environment governance and high-quality economic development, we proposed a development direction: China′s water pollutant emission standards should reflect the systematic thinking of the comprehensive treatment system of “governance, use and protection” at the overall layer, core layer and support layer, while constantly improve the technical evaluation system of the emission limits of water pollutants, and gradually perfect the total water pollutant control, the system of pollutants emission permit and water property trade system.