Over the past a few decades, China has experienced dramatic changes in its environment and climate. Understanding if these changes are intertwined would provide a key to understand the general impact of anthropogenic activities on earth’s natural climate system. To this end, we have conducted extensive and intensive observations in China under the East Asian Study of Tropospheric Experiments: an International Regional Experiment (EAST-AIRE) and the deployment of the DOE’s ARM Moblile Facility (AMF). By modulating atmospheric heating profile, surface energy balance and cloud microphysics, we found that changes in the atmospheric environment of China played significant roles in observed changes in radiation, precipitation, temperature, atmospheric circulation, and even the Asian monsoon system. In this talk, I will give an overview of the findings as reported in two special sections in the J. Geophy. Res. in 2007 and 2010.