The hepatocyte nuclear factor 4-alpha (HNF4A) and human forkhead box O1 (FOXO1) genes have been discovered to be associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in different populations. This study aimed to evaluate the association between HNF4A and FOXO1 genetic polymorphisms and type 2 diabetes in the Chinese Han population. Five hundred and seventy-seven patients with type 2 diabetes and 462 normal controls were enrolled in this study. Six single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in HNF4A and seven in FOXO1 were selected and genotyped with polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) or TaqMan(®) technology. Single-locus analyses indicated that the C allele of rs11574736 from HNF4A had a lower frequency in the case group compared with the control group (P = 0.005, OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.59-0.92). The genotype distributions of rs11574736 also differed between the two groups (P = 0.02). However, none of the FOXO1 SNPs showed any association with type 2 diabetes in the Chinese Han population. Further analysis suggested the two genes interact with each other (rs3908773/rs717247/rs6031587/rs11574736: P < 0.0001, testing accuracy = 0.55, CV consistency = 6/10). In conclusion, this study shows an association between the HNF4A gene and type 2 diabetes in the Chinese Han population. Moreover, the authors confirmed the results of previous studies for the interaction between HNF4A and FOXO1 in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.