In order to investigate the performance of two kinds of interferon γ release assays in the diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis in China (with a high rate of bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccination and a high incidence of tuberculosis), a total of 114 children with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis were recruited. Among the cases, 45 received QuantiFERON-Gold In-Tube (QFT-GIT) test while the other 69 were tested with T-SPOT.TB. The clinical information was collected for diagnostic classification. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were compared between the two methods. The sensitivity of QFT-GIT in the diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis was 86.4%, the specificity was 81.3%, PPV was 91.7%, and NPV was 76.5%. In contrast, the sensitivity of T-SPOT.TB was72.3%, the specificity was 93.7%, PPV was 97.1%, and NPV was 53.6%. The positive rates of two methods in the cases treated with glucocorticoids decreased significantly compared to those untreated. In conclusion, both QFT-GIT and T-SPOT.TB have high PPV in the diagnosis of childhood pulmonary tuberculosis since the rate of latent tuberculosis infection was low in children.