The invention discloses a novel catalyst for carrying out liquid-phase high-selectivity catalytic oxidation on methylbenzene. The catalyst mainly takes an alkaline-earth metal composite oxide with high temperature stability as a carrier and metals (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Au, Pd and Pt) with high activity as catalytic oxidation active centers. The prepared catalyst shows high selectivity and activity in liquid-phase oxidation of methylbenzene. Under the conditions that the reaction temperature is 90-160 DEG C, the reaction time is 2-48 hours and the pressure of air or oxygen is 0.5-2.0MPa, the highest selectivity of benzaldehyde can be 94.0% and the highest conversion rate of methylbenzene also reaches 45.0%. Compared with the reported results, the prepared catalyst has the advantages that the catalyst still has good mesoporous structure under high temperature; in the catalysis process, the conversion rate of methylbenzene and the yield of benzaldehyde are high; and meanwhile, any solvent or organic additive is not added to a reaction system and the catalyst has the advantages of high yield, low cost, no environmental pollution, easy separation, good repeatability and the like.