A deep-sea basic research project was conducted with successes from 2000 to 2005 under the title“Interactions between the Earth spheres: Deep-sea processed and records”, involving 11 laboratories from 5 administration systems in China. With the “carbon cycling in the tropics” as its core subject, the project was implemented on the basis of ODP (Ocean Drilling Program) and COMRA (China Ocean Mineral Resources R & D Association) offshore activities, and resulted in a number of notable achievements. Following the primary results form the ODP leg to the south China sea, the new discoveries of the project significantly contributed to our understanding of the role played by the tropical ocean in the Earth system. With the use of domestic and international cruises, remarkable progress has beed made in the broad spectrum of deep-sea reseach and interactions between the Earth spheres. For the first time, research teams have been established in China to work on deep-sea subjects within the international community. The present paper briefly describes the design and results of the project, while the major progress in paleoenvironmental studies will be reviewed in the following-up of this paper.