Many studies have proved that human-impacted forests could still provide potential habitats for conserving biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Protecting and actively restoring degraded tropical forests has become more important than ever under global change. The recovery rate of tropical secondary forests on abandoned lands of multiple cycles of shifting cultivation is usually slow. In improving the recovery rate and timber production in tropical forests, there is a long history in applying silvicultural treatment. Thinning is one of important forest management approach to improve forest restoration and timber production. Thus, using thinning to accelerate the recovery of tropical secondary forests is an important issue for forest management and protection. There is little empirical or experimental evidence of species-focused thinning with the goal of altering forest recovery in the tropical regions. Based on five years census data of 60 0.25 hm² permanent plots of tropical secondary forests of on Hainan Island, a thinning experiment was conducted. All species in sixty plots were classified into three groups:eliminated species, assistant species, and reserved species. Thirty plots were thinned in 2013. During the thinning treatment, all stems ≥ 5 cm DBH (diameter at breast height) of eliminated species were cut (DBH<8 cm) or girdled (8 cm ≤ DBH<15 cm). The result showed that the aboveground biomass (AGB) of 30 thinning plot and 30 control plots (no thinning treatment) increased by 24.5% and 13.4%, respectively. Moreover, the lost AGB in the thinning plots recovered rapidly and had no significant difference to the control plots. The AGB of the reserved species was increased at the expense of reducing AGB of eliminated species after thinning treatment. The absolute increment of AGB in secondary forests after thinning increased significantly by 58.74% and the relative increment by 67.93%. In the 30 thinning plots, the absolute and relative increment of AGB showed unimodal pattern with the increase of thinning intensity. The relative and absolute increment of AGB reached the highest with the thinning intensity of (10±2.5)%. Thinning intensity was important factor affecting the increment of AGB, while species diversity and functional dispersion played less roles. The most important factor of determining the relative increment of AGB (negative effect) is the initial biomass of the secondary forests. This study confirmed that recovery rates of aboveground biomass could be accelerated. This active restoration activity would be likely successful under low thinning intensity. Our study provides important theoretical foundation and practical evidence for the future management of tropical secondary forests of China.