The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP, 2013-2023) and its predecessors the Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP, 1968-1953), the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP, 1985-2003), and the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP, 2003-2013) are the largest and most influential international scientific program in the field of geoscience. China joined the ODP in 1998, and four ocean drilling expeditions have been carried out so far in the South China Sea (SCS): ODP Leg 184 in 1999 with the theme of East Asian monsoon evolution, IODP Expedition 349 in 2014 with the theme of South China Sea seafloor spreading, and IODP Expeditions 367-368 in 2017 with the theme of South China Sea rifted margin. There are 18 deep-sea drilling sites in the four expeditions to the SCS, 12 of which have water depths of more than 3000 m and 7 of which have penetrated the igneous basement, and nearly 10000 m of sediment and rock have been recovered in total. The results of ocean drilling in the SCS have put forward our own understandings on climate evolution and basin formation. (1) According to the discovery of long eccentricity cycle of ocean carbon reservoir, a double driving hypothesis of climate evolution by ice sheet and tropical processes had been proposed, making the evolution of low-latitude global monsoon, like the growth and decline of polar ice sheet, to become a new proposition of the International Past Global Change Study (PAGES). (2) The newly completed IDOP expeditions 367 and 368 in the SCS have recovered the complete record of the SCS evolution from land to deep-sea, particularly including the discovery of the marine Eocene in the northern SCS, displaying that the seafloor spreading of the SCS propagated from east to west and probably originated from the western Philippine Sea to the east. These findings challenged the traditional view of the North Atlantic. The SCS is not a mini Atlantic and promising to provide a geological model for the formation and evolution of the marginal sea. These new discoveries and new knowledge make the SCS to be the most intensively studied marginal sea in the world, and establish China's dominance in the international deep-sea scientific researches of the SCS. At the same time, the ocean drilling in the SCS has greatly promoted the Chinese academic circle to integrate with the main fields of international deep-sea science, and enter a new phase of the land-sea combined earth system study. From the perspective of basic research, it provides irreplaceable valuable information and knowledge for oil and gas exploration, particularly in deep waters in the SCS. In addition, China's participation in ocean drilling has also provided much needed opportunities for Chinese scientists to participate in the deep-sea exploration of the oceans including the Antarctic and Arctic oceans, and formed a high-level deep-sea scientific and technological research team, leading our deep-sea scientific research to the international frontiers. At present, China is in the critical period of building a powerful maritime country, and is striving to be a member of the international leadership in ocean drilling.