Abstract: With the formulation of the Thirteenth Five-year Plan in Education, "modern" and "power" has become hot topics in the recent domestic discussion of higher education. As an important component of the national modernization, the modernization of higher education is the premise and basis of national modernization. Becoming a higher education power is a more ambitious goal for higher education in the construction of national modernization. Though the form and some specific characteristics of the two closely related concepts are overlapping, the essence of the two concepts is very different. Generally appearing before "power", "Modern" is the forerunner and foundation for "power". With reference to the developed countries in the world, it has some relatively mature development indicators. The "power" is a relative concept which includes many complicated factors, and it needs further study and improvement in the construction, evaluation and so on. Modernization paradigm can be used for enlightenment, but confusing the two concepts should be carefully avoided.