China’s current stage of development calls for a shift toward high-quality growth in all sectors, including vocational education. As a policy concept, high-quality vocational education is defined by its commitment to “equal status” with general education and distinctive development features, its dual alignment with economic and social needs as well as the principles of talent cultivation, and its focus on achieving both societal recognition and public satisfaction. Systemic and institutional reforms play a crucial role in providing regulation and guidance, fostering coordination and management, and creating incentives for high-quality development. However, vocational education in China currently faces significant challenges and institutional barriers. These include path dependency in education and evaluation mechanisms that undermine the unique features of vocational education, structural contradictions and conflicting goals among the various stakeholders that limit adaptability in talent development, and institutional discrimination in resources allocation and social security, which has triggered a crisis of identity for vocational education. To address these issues and promote high-quality development, comprehensive system and mechanism reforms are urgently needed. These reforms should include establishing a people-centered educational philosophy, improving the mechanisms for selecting, training, and evaluating diverse talents, fostering school-enterprise partnerships to boost the engagement and resilience of multiple stakeholders, and creating an institutional framework that guarantees equal opportunities, ultimately increasing public satisfaction and social acknowledgment of the value of vocational education.