Diabetes and its chronic complications pose a serious threat to human health and impose a huge economic burden on the world. Under the guidance of the Communist Party of China after the founding of China, many scholars have studied diabetes and its complications by integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine since the 1970s, and made certain achievements, providing an objective basis for confirming the role played by traditional Chinese medicine in this field. This article reviews the research on the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes mellitus and its complications by integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine.