Cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) and survivin are aberrantly expressed in a wide range of human cancers, including lung tumors. In order to assess the expressions of these two proteins in Chinese non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and determine their correlation with prognosis, NSCLC tissues and adjacent non-cancerous normal lung tissues were collected from 97 patients undergoing surgical treatment and evaluated by immunohistochemistry staining. CIP2A or survivin immunoreactivity was detected in significantly more NSCLC tissues than in adjacent non-cancerous lung tissues (P < 0.05). Moreover, CIP2A expression in NSCLC correlated with TNM stage, while survivin expression correlated with TNM stage and lymph node metastasis. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the overall survival times in patients expressing either CIP2A or survivin protein in NSCLC were shorter. COX regression analysis indicated that expression of CIP2A protein was an independent prognostic factor for NSCLC patients (HR = 3.631, P = 0.015). Therefore, CIP2A expression in Chinese NSCLC patients may be a useful biomarker of biological malignancy.