It has been 36 years since the first version of essential medicine list (EML) was released by WHO in 1977,when 18 versions of WHO-EML and four versions of children essential medicine list have been released. In 1982, the first version of national essential medicine list (NEML) was released in China. Till 2012, there were eight versions of NEML in total. This paper introduces WHO-EML in aspects of origin, idea, definition, design, and innovation of selection methodology,principle, and workflow; compares the evolution, design, selection methodology between WHO-EML and Chinese NEML; and points out the challenges of evaluation and decision making of Chinese NEML.