From the perspective of global value chain (GVC), based on the ownership status of export product quality improvement, this paper theoretically explains and empirically examines the effect of export product quality upgrading on GVC climbing and its effects on skill wage gap. The conclusions are that, compared with the improvement of export product quality obtained by using foreign capital, the upgrading of domestic export product quality, which reflects the contributions of domestic factors, can help export industry to climb the GVC; the upgrading of the GVC has widened the skill wage gap; the improvement of local export product quality not only directly widened the skill wage gap, but also indirectly widened the skills wage gap through the GVC climbing mechanism; the upgrading of export product quality obtained by using foreign capital indirectly reduces the skill wage gap through the negative GVC climbing effect; in the industry with higher intermediate input import, higher processing trade and higher foreign investment, the export quality of the final products is higher, but the skill wage gap is not expanded through the GVC climbing mechanism. Therefore, while improving the local export products quality and promoting the export industry to climb the GVC, it is necessary to pay attention to the positive interaction between the development of high-quality foreign trade and the narrowing of the skill wage gap.