When modern-style plate tectonics commenced on Earth remains one of fundamental questions in unravelling the evolution of our planet, due to the apparent lack of low-thermal gradients in old metamorphic rocks (< 350 °C/GPa)—a key indicator of modern plate subduction—during the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic Era. Here we present 2.0 Gyr lawsonite eclogites and associated eclogite-facies garnet-kyanite-chloritoid schists with low-thermal gradients of 265-290°C/GPa from the Kongling Complex in South China through integrated thermodynamic modelling and zircon in situ U-Pb dating. More importantly, a temporally equivalent mafic granulites with high-thermal gradients of ~720 °C/GPa has been also recognized spatially adjacent to those low dT/dP eclogite-facies rocks, integrated as a classic paired metamorphic belt. The results show a new discovery of Paleoproterozoic classic paired metamorphic belts driven by cold deep subduction in South China, indicating that the modern-style plate tectonics was already operative on Earth by the Palaeoproterozoic.