The deep sea records from the ODP Sites 1143 and 1144 in the northern and southern South China Sea (SCS), including foraminiferal δ18O and δ13C, Opal% and pollen percentage, reveal that the variations of the east Asian monsoon have been closely correlated with the variations of the Earth's orbital parameters (eccentricity, obliquity and precession) and the global ice volume on orbital scale. All the monsoonal proxies show strong 100 ka, 41 ka and 23 ka cycles. Although G. ruber δ13C of Site 1143 is coherent with the ETP (ETP= normalized (eccentricity + obliquity-precession) at eccentricity, obliquity and precession bands, most of the coherent relationship focuses on the precession band, and the other monsoonal proxies are coherent with the ETP only at the precession band, which indicate that precession dominates the Pleistocene tropical climate changes. The phase relationship of the monsoonal proxies with the foraminiferal δ18O implies that the global ice volume changes have played a significant role in modulating the east Asian monsoon climate, at least dominating the winter monsoon. This forcing mechanism of the east Asian monsoon is apparently different from that of the Indian ocean monsoon. The variations of the east Asian monsoon at the precession band, at least that of the winter monsoon, have been controlled not only by the sensible heating but also by the latent heating of the surface water in the South China Sea.