The serious problem of non-point source (NPS) pollution is increasingly concerned by both the Chinese government and academic scholars. However, NPS pollution is a complex problem, which required systematic understanding of related processes contributing to NPS pollutant losses and major factors affecting these processes. For NPS pollutant loss related researches and application cases, NPS models is an important tool for conducting relative researches and assisting policy makers in determining proper, economic, and effective measurements to reduce NPS pollutant loads. The NPS models have been applied to solve many problems, which included identifying major pollutant type, estimating total load of major pollutants, identifying paths through which pollutants losses and major factors affecting the corresponding paths, and developing strategies for reducing NPS pollutants. In China, large number of researches have been conducted on the development and application of NPS models. These activities are dominated by adoption and verification of NPS models developed by other countries, which is complemented by model development based on data collected under conditions for China. However, there are still many problems in development and application of NPS related models in China. These problems include limited model application and verification, lack of consideration on characteristics of the NPS pollution in China, and lack of incorporating advances in NPS theories to model development. The APEX model has some advantages in solving these problems over other NPS models and made it a prospective tool to solve NPS pollution related problems in China. This paper analyzed the potential of applying the APEX model in researches for the NPS pollution in China. In this review, the problems identified in reported papers on NPS models were summarized by reviewing existing papers on application of the APEX model under the natural and agricultural conditions in China. This is followed by detailed description of 12 major modules included in the APEX model, as well as explanation on application capabilities of the model. Then, existing papers on the APEX model were categorized based on the major research topics, including review papers, papers on development of user interface for the model, on model improvement, on sensitivity analysis of model parameters, parameter optimization, on applying models for scenario simulation, etc. In addition, the prospective of applying the model in simulating specific NPS pollution problems such as poultry, complex tillage system, localized BMP and rice paddy was described. This paper will provide some supports for the NPS model development in China.