our study aims to take a closer look at china's current information literacy (il) program standards at secondary schools and to analyze their level of success and/or failures in a comparative way with those of the united states in terms of fulfilling their each other's mission-oriented mandates. our research findings show that china's current il standards of high schools contain a disproportionate emphasis on information technology (it). moreover, the stipulations of these il standards are narrowly construed and without being solidly grounded on a broad and comprehensive educational perspective. we also suggest that there are two underlying causes for this set of unsound il standards in china. firstly, there is a lack of collaboration between two major competing forces engaged in the curricular development and research of il in china: those professionals in educational it discipline vis-à-vis those in library and information science. secondly, library professionals have a very limited influence on major socio-cultural policies, even at their own institutions. as a result, this paper recommends the following three possible measures, which may help remedy this situation strategically: 1)establishing a set of new il curriculum standards based on an il-centered educational perspective; 2) establishing a teacher-librarian's training program to promote school librarians' role in il education; and 3) strengthening the research and development of an online il education program and an accompanied evaluation mechanism.