This paper introduces the overall objectives, major contents, and some preliminary results of the 973 project “Variability of the water and energy cycles and their impact on the extreme climate over China under the global warming background”. The major results contain the field experiments on the land air exchange of water and energy performed in Dunhuang and Linze stations, the analysis of the variability of frequency and intensity of extreme climates in China both in the observation and the climate models, detections on the new approaches of seasonal climate prediction. The paper also provides the future plans of this 973 project in the future years.