In Asian and Chinese contexts, internationalisation fundamentally means the adoption of Western modes of education. Given how much internationalisation is being promoted at the national and institutional levels, the authors would like to find out how well the related initiatives and reform are received by college professors at the front line of higher education. In-depth interviews with 22 Chinese faculty members at a university in Greater China shows that for many of them, internationalisation meant convergence with Western models of higher education through adopting their criteria and practice. The study also identified among these academics a collective endorsement of an academically dependent relationship with Western universities and their legitimisation of Western hegemony in global higher education. With faculty support, this study predicts that Chinese universities will continue to depend on Western institutions for their development in major spheres, with little attention to be paid to their internal scholarly strengths and knowledge traditions.