There are abundant soybean germplasm in China. In order to assess genetic diversity of Chinese summer soybean germplasm, 158 Chinese summer soybean accessions from the primary core collection of G. max were used to analyze genetic variation at 67 SSR loci. A total of 460 alleles were detected, in which 414 and 419 alleles occurred in the 80 Huanghuai and the 78 Southern summer accessions, respectively. The average number of alleles per locus was 6.9 for all the summer accessions, and 6.2 for both Huanghuai and Southern summer accessions. Marker diversity (D) per locus ranged from 0.414 to 0.905 with an average of 0.735 for all the summer accessions, from 0.387 to 0.886 with an average of 0.708 for the Huanghuai summer accessions, and from 0.189 to 0.884 with an average of 0.687 for the Southern summer accessions. The Huanghuai and Southern summer germplasm were different in the specific alleles, allelic-frequencies and pairwise genetic similarities. UPGMA cluster analysis based on the similarity data clearly separated the Huanghuai from Southern summer soybean accessions, suggesting that they were different gene pools. The results indicate that Chinese Huanghuai and Southern summer soybean germplasm can be used to enlarge genetic basis for developing elite summer soybean cultivars by exchanging their germplasm.