The increase in intense tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) has often been linked to a warming ocean1-8. Here we show, however, that the TC intensity increasing trend in the tropical WNP during the past three decades are mainly related to the warming of the East Asian continent, especially a warming Tibetan Plateau (TP). The regional weak increasing trend of local sea surface temperature unlikely supplies the necessary energy for this increase in TC intensity. Instead, a weakened vertical wind shear (VWS) appears to be the main contributing factor. Through numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the warming TP strengthens the South Asian high-pressure system, which triggers a wave train toward the tropical WNP, subsequently modifying the upper- and lower-tropospheric zonal winds to reduce the VWS. Applying the high correlation between TC intensity and the local VWS to climate model projection results supports that TCs will likely become stronger, with a significantly increasing rate of 1.0 m s-1/10 years during 2021–2050, due to a further warming of the East Asian continent. Thus, the rims of East Asia and Southeast Asia could face an increasing risk of intense typhoons.