This application provides a rate matching method and a communication apparatus. A transmit end punctures an LDPC codeword based on a priority order of check bits of a mother code of an LDPC code. The priority order of the check bits of the mother code indicates a priority order of
puncturing the check bits in a rate matching process, and the priority order is related to confidences of the check bits. The confidences of the check bits indicate degrees to which the check bits are affected by
noise in a channel transmission process. In addition,
puncturing the check bits can ensure restorability of a
system variable node, and a check bit with a higher confidence is more likely to be correctly restored, so that more valid information can be provided for another
system variable node during decoding iteration. Therefore, in this application, it is considered that a check bit with a high confidence is preferentially punctured, to provide more valid information for another
system variable node in an iterative decoding process, thereby improving decoding performance of a receive end.