Protection of transmission lines is the most important defense against faults in multi-terminal HVDC system. Up until now, no single protection can balance the operation speed and sensitivity needed for all fault types. To solve this problem, a novel current differential protection for HVDC transmission line is proposed in this paper. The intrinsic properties of a HVDC transmission line are analyzed first. Then, essence of ideal current differential protection is revealed and fundamental relations between line models and performance degradation of existing differential protections are discussed. Based on this analysis, a novel current differential protection scheme, including fault detection and faulty pole selection, is developed, and Bergeron model is used to describe the electrical wave propagation process along line, resulting in only simple computations are needed in each calculation cycle. Finally, a simulation model of Wudongde ± 800 kV HVDC project in China is established in PSCAD/EMTDC for verification. By discussing diversified faults and transient processes, simulation results prove that regardless of fault type, distance and transition impedance, the proposed differential protection can respond correctly. Main contribution of this paper is reducing the operation time of differential protection from hundreds of milliseconds to several milliseconds.