Over the past 20 years, the Chinese Fengyun meteorological satellite has progressed from the experimental phase to the operational phase, from the first generation to the second generation, from providing single observation to providing comprehensive observations, and from qualitative application to quantitative application. The Fengyun meteorological satellite has also realized the objects of operation, serialization, and quantification. Great progress has been made in data preprocessing, product generation, and data application. In the field of geolocation, the development and continuous optimization of independent geolocation algorithms have improved the geolocation accuracy of operational satellite data from 23 pixels to 1 pixel. In the field of radiometric calibration, the inner blackbody calibration algorithm corrected by lunar emission, the deep convective cloud calibration algorithm, the lunar calibration algorithm, and the cross calibration algorithm have been developed. On the basis of such algorithms, a comprehensive calibration system has been established to improve the calibration accuracy of solar reflective bands to 5% and thermal infrared bands to 0.5K. In the field of product generation, the Fengyun Product Generation System(PGS)and its corresponding quality control system have been established. The PGS system can output dozens of quantitative products of the atmosphere, land, ocean, and space weather. The quality of several products reaches or approaches those at the international level. Fengyun satellite data have been widely used in weather monitoring, climate analysis, ecology and environmental surveys, etc. After strict quality control and evaluation, Fengyun satellite data have been operationally assimilated into ECMWF's operational NWP model, thus indicating that the application of Fengyun satellites has reached a new level. The meteorological satellite observation system established in China shows continuous improvement in terms of observation accuracy and service capability. However, the system cannot fully satisfy the requirements of different applications. In the future, the following aspects should be considered for the development of Fengyun satellites. First, a reasonable observation system should be established. Second, data and product quality should be improved. Third, sounding ability should be strengthened. Forth, future meteorological satellites should enhance emergency response capability. Fifth, the continuity and stability of observation should be enhanced to satisfy the requirements of climate change research. Finally, the comprehensive application capability should be enhanced to make meteorological satellites more useful.