Abstract: The thermal adaptation theory is used to investigate the impacts of the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly in the Indian Ocean on the wea ther over southern China and the subtropical anticyclone over the western Pacific Ocean. Results show that through the first stage of the atmospheric thermal ad aptation to the SST anomaly in the Indian Ocean, the in situ anomalous cyclonic circulation in the lower layers of the troposphere is formed, and deep convective precipitation to its east is generated due to the development of southerlies. Then through the second stage of the atmospheric thermal adaptation to the latent heating resulting from the precipitation condensation, anomalous anticyclone circulation is produced at 500 hPa over the western Pacific and at 200 hPa over South Asia. It is therefore concluded that the two-stage thermal adaptation is an important mechanism that links the occurrence of the anomalous subtropical a nticyclones and climate over the eastern Asian monsoon region to the SST anomaly in the Indian Ocean.