An overview is made of the research history and current state of climate change attribution, with an emphasis on the studies of possible causes of the recent climate warming around the globe and across China. Also discussed are the remaining uncertainties related to some key issues. Conclusions are drawn from the overview that big progresses in studies of climate change detection and attribution have been made both internationally and domestically since 1980s, but large uncertainties still exist in many aspects of the current research. The uncertainties are mostly related to the quality of instrumental and proxy data, the complicated feedbacks among varied components of climate system, and the research tools such as global and regional climate models. A further development of climate change science will rely on the significant reduction of these uncertainties in the coming decades.