Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata of South China contain commercial oil and gas, as well as coals, evaporites, oil shales, and sedimentary copper deposits. The pre-Mesozoic history includes Proterozoic to Silurian depositional episodes, Caledonian orogeny, younger depositional phases, and Hercynian events. The Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic setting formed from collision-type orogenies involving terranes and associated suture zones. The Yangtze and Huanan (South China) terranes collided during the Indosinian orogeny whereas the Huanan and coastal terranes collided later in the Mesozoic.

The pre-Indosinian Triassic shows Paleotethys-type facies, which include basinal, shallow marine, and continental deposits. After the Indosinian, several gulfs formed in basins that were transgressed primarily from the west, and they became swamps, lakes, and alluvial plains.

A unified continental region formed in the earliest Jurassic; marine conditions continued to affect only a part of southeastern China. The Jurassic of South China was characterized mainly by a continental basin in the west and volcanism in the east. Overall, the climate changed to more arid conditions.

During the Cretaceous, a series of continental, riftlike basins formed in the east as basinal development in the west waned and then effectively ceased. Climate was arid and semiarid, as indicated by red beds and evaporites.

The Tertiary basins tend to reflect downfaulting in the Paleogene, with some lacustrine sediments (even local source rock), and downwarping under fluvial conditions during the Neogene. The climate showed areal differentiation and in many areas changed from humid to arid with time.