Based on the background of the increasing use ratio of China’s domestic intermediate goods, this paper abandons the traditional assumption that there is fixed or unitary substitution elasticity among intermediate goods in different countries, calculates the import substitution elasticity and its changes of intermediate goods in various departments of China from 2001 to 2014 based on WIOD database, and makes an empirical analysis on the impact of import substitution elasticity and domestic production cycle of intermediate goods on China’s international division of labor status. It is found that in recent years, the import substitution elasticity of domestic intermediate goods in China’s main import and export industries tends to increase, which promotes the domestic cycle of production. The elasticity of import substitution of intermediate goods in various departments has promoted the domestic value-added content and international division of labor status of China’s exports from 2001 to 2014 as a whole, while as an indirect channel, the “forward linkage effect” and “backward linkage effect” of intermediate goods in the domestic production network promote and restrain the increase of the domestic value-added content of China’s exports, respectively. However, the evidence that the elasticity of import substitution of intermediate goods affects the status of international division of labor through the interaction with the correlation effect of domestic production network is only reflected in some of the results. This paper provides a new perspective for the objective understanding of China’s international division of labor status, and its conclusions also have important policy implications.