Early detection is the most important means to improve liver cancer prognosis. In the 1970s, a large number of patients with early stage liver cancer were detected by the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) test in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and other territories across China. In the 1990s, Professor Yang Bing et al. pointed out that patients aged above 40 and positive for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) or with chronic hepatitis are high-risk populations for liver cancer. The detection rate of liver cancer in the above populations was 34.5-fold higher than that in the general population. Two AFP tests per year plus B-ultrasound were thus recommended for these populations. Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of medical imaging like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In the meantime, a series of early diagnostic molecular markers for liver cancer have been widely accepted, including alpha-fetoprotein alloplasm 3 (AFP-L3), des-γ-carboxy prothrombin (DCP/PIVKA II), and Golgi protein 73 (GP73). Liquid biopsy techniques, such as detections of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating microRNAs (miRNAs), and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), have undergone rapid development. The early diagnosis of liver cancer has taken a great leap forward because of these novel techniques.