This paper takes Chinese family enterprises from 2008 to 2021 as a sample to study the impact of second generation involvement on the internationalization of family enterprises. The research shows that the involvement of the second generation helps family enterprises to choose international strategies and deepen their degree of internationalization, which is more obvious in the second generation with overseas background. Further research found that the promotion of the second generation involvement on the internationalization of family enterprises is more prominent in family enterprises with relatively dispersed equity and in family enterprises in the manufacturing industry. This study enriches the theoretical findings of the second generation involvement in family control and social emotional wealth, and provides new empirical evidence for the internationalization of Chinese family enterprises.