We produce the 30 m annual China land cover dataset (CLCD), with an accuracy reaching 79.31 %. Trends and patterns of land cover changes during 1985 and 2019 were revealed, such as expansion of impervious surface (+148.71 %) and water (+18.39 %), decrease in cropland (−4.85 %) and increase in forest (+4.34 %). The CLCD generally reflected the rapid urbanization and a series of ecological projects in China and revealed the anthropogenic implications on LC under the condition of climate change.