Based on the geomorphological, drilling, chronological and seismic data, the stratigraphic distribution, basin framework structure, structural unit division and rift migration law of the East China Sea Basin are analyzed. The results show that the basin is composed of Taipei Depression, Zhoushan Uplift, East Zhejiang Depression, Diaoyu Island Uplift Fold Belt and Okinawa Depression. It is a large Mesozoic- Cenozoic superimposed petroleum basin primarily filled with Cenozoic sediments and some Mesozoic sediments. Paleoproterozoic metamorphic rocks constitute the basement of the basin. The basin is not only a part of the Western Pacific trench- arc- basin tectonic system tract formed by the successive dynamic systems of the Indian- Pacific, but also of the Tethys and Paleo- Asian ocean tectonic domain formed by the Tethys Oceanic and the Paleo- Asian oceanic dynamic system.From the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous, it experienced tectonic regime transformation that significantly changed its basin pattern. The strongly extruded orogenic and crustal thickening effects mainly affected by the Paleo- Asian Tethys tectonic system prior to the early Cretaceous has since evolved into the continental marginal rifting and lithospheric thinning mainly controlled by the Pacific tectonic regime. It has experienced two major evolutionary stages: the continental marginal depression of the Jurassic Paleo Asia- Tethys oceanic tectonic regime and the post- arc rifting of the Pacific tectonic regime since the Cretaceous. The post- arc rifting evolution stage of the Pacific tectonic regime since the Cretaceous can be subdivided into the Early Cretaceous to Eocene rifting, the Oligocene to Late Miocene depression, and the Late Miocene to Holocene rifting.