[Objective] The characteristics and differences of land cover change between China and Russia in the Wusuli River basin from 1990 to 2015 were analyzed in order to provide a scientific reference for the study of human-environment interaction and land resource management in the basin. [Methods] The Landsat TM/OLI remote sensing image was used as the data source, and the object-oriented remote sensing classification method was used to extract the land cover information of 1990 and 2015 in Wusuli River basin, and the main characteristics of land cover change in Wusuli River basin were analyzed. [Results] During the 26 years from 1990 to 2015, the change of farmland and wetland area in Wusuli River basin was obvious. The area of farmland was expanded by 6 089.69 km² with an increase rate of 18.4%. Among them, 5 416.7 km² was transformed from wetland, and farmland expansion mainly occurred in China. The area of wetland and forest land decreased by 5 683.51 km² and 844.09 km², with a reduction rate of 56.4% and 3.51%, respectively. The intensity of land cover change in Russia was weak, and the change rate among land cover types was less than 2%. [Conclusion] Climate, topography, agricultural macro policy and agricultural production mode are the factors that promote the change of land cover in Wusuli River basin, among which the change of agricultural production mode and the expansion of scale are the main driving forces.