Abstract: The Mesozoic-Cenozoic sedimentary basins in China are developed in the different geological settings.During Indo-Chinese epoch,nonmarine basins were generated in the north of Indo-Chinese folded belt but remn-ant sea basins developed in the western part of Yangtze area in Southern China as Palaeo-Tethys Ocean became vanished.During Yanshan period and Himalayan period,the old basins were deformed as Meso-and Neo-Te-thys became terminated,and a number of newly-developed basins formed in these different tectonic settings.These settings can be classified into three kinds according to the geodynamic settings of plate or block boundary system,that is,extensional-rifted setting with divergent boundary system; orogenic setting with convergent boundary system,shear-extentional or shear-compressional setting with stike-slip transform boundary system.Rift-rifted basin,mountain front basin and intermountain compie-ssional-depression basin as well as pull-agart basin were generated respectively in these settings.Based on basin structure characteristics,we can group these basins into two classes,namely depression and faulted basin.In fact,faulted basin includes two kinds of strctural types: rifted basin and compressional-faulted basin; pullagart basin belongs to faulted structure.Geodynamic settings of plates or blocks,however,would be different in the different periods.Therefore,the dynamic characteristics of some basins would have changed several times,which can be reflected not only on the changes of their force characteristics,but also on the superimposition of different types of basins at the different stages.This makes that Mesozoic-Cenozoic basins in China have many unique types.The evolution models of these basins can be developed through careful studies,which can lay a foundation for the study of tectonic deformation of lithosphere and the distribution of mineral as well as that of energy resource.