The present paper summarized the global status on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) vaccine development. Novel tuberculosis vaccines in clinical and pre-clinical trials are listed. The new tuberculosis vaccine candidates include recombinant bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), subunit vaccines and therapeutic vaccines. The status of research on new tuberculosis vaccines in China is analyzed. The review also introduced the development tendency of tuberculosis vaccines in the world, such as Human Vaccines Project, whole cell vaccine, multistage subunit vaccines, etc. The issues, opportunities and challenges for tuberculosis vaccine research and development in the future were discussed.