Water science research achievements demonstrate that, the shortage of water resources has been caused, in a large part, by the human being's over exploitation and development of water resources with negligence of the objective laws of the water cycle and exceeding the renewing capacity of water resources. The scientific and rational control of basin total water withdrawal is one of critical non-engineering measures to ensure the realization of sustainable utilization of basin water resources. Regarding the control of basin total water withdrawal, the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River basin in the USA and the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia are both among the successful cases worldwide. Based on the discussion of the content and implementation performance of the basin total water withdrawal control systems in the two foreign basins and Huanghe River Basin in China, a comparative analysis is conducted to find the foreign experiences that could be learnt by China, and several recommendations are made for improving the basin total water withdrawal control systems in China.