Abstract: Remarkable progress has been made in observations, theoretical studies and numerical simulations of the ocean-atmosphere system, laying a solid foundation for the improvement of short-term climate predictions. Chinese scholars have made important contributions to the progress mentioned above. This paper reviews research in China on tropical air-sea interaction and ENSO dynamics and prediction in the past 70 years. The tropical air-sea interaction studies mainly focus on four aspects: the characteristics of the tropical Pacific climate system and ENSO phenomena; the major modes of the tropical Indian Ocean SSTs and their interactions with the tropical Pacific; the major modes of the tropical Atlantic SSTs and inter-basin interactions; the influence of the mid- and high-latitude air-sea system on ENSO. The ENSO dynamics studies involve seven aspects: fundamental theories of ENSO; the diagnosis and simulation of ENSO; the two types of ENSO; the mechanisms for ENSO initiation; the interactions between ENSO and other phenomena; external forcing and teleconnections; climate change and ENSO responses. The ENSO prediction studies mainly address the dynamical-statistical methods of ENSO prediction, and ENSO prediction systems as well as their applications. Finally, some of the issues in these areas that still need further studies were discussed.