Abstract: Based on the daily observed data of 73 stations in the Tibetan Plateau and the JRA-55 reanalysis data, by using year-to-year differences and the equation of kinetic energy budget, the variation of wind speed in the Tibetan Plateau in spring during the period of 1971-2012 and its response to global warming are investigated. It is indicated that there is a statistically significant decrease trend of spring wind speed in the Tibetan Plateau as the climate is warming, while the variation tends to be steady as a hiatus of warming occurs at the beginning of the 21st century. Although the climatic trend of wind speed is contrary to surface temperature, they exhibit a homothetic phase on an inter-annual scale, in which case the spring wind speed in the Tibetan Plateau increases when the surface temperature increases in the Tibetan Plateau, Indo-China Peninsula and India Peninsula but decreases in the north and east of Asian. A decline trend of spring wind speed in the Plateau at the end of the 20th century due to more rapid warming in the North Asia than in the South Asia, and an increasing trend of wind speed in the years followed is accompanied by warming in central Plateau and South Asia while cooling in North and East Asia. The asymmetrical thermal condition of both the Tibetan Plateau and its purlieus make an impact on atmospheric baroclinicity by which the variation of wind speed in the Plateau can be influenced in two ways: one is changing directly the pressure gradient force near surface, and another is affecting the transportation of kinetic energy from the upper levels to the middle levels. Meanwhile, the applicability of the three different reanalysis wind data to the Tibetan Plateau is investigated, respectively.