It is important to understand drought characteristics in Guangdong Province to reduce losses caused by drought. The monthly precipitation and temperature from 86 national meteorological stations in Guangdong Province from 1971 to 2020 are used to calculate the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at different time scales. Mann-Kendall trend test, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition (ESMD) methods are applied to analyze the spatial-temporal characteristics of drought in Guangdong Province in recent 50 years. The results show that the significant declining trend of annual scale SPEI indicates that drought is getting worse. Seasonal scale SPEI also shows a worse trend of drought but the trend is not significant. The occurring frequency of drought in Guangdong Province is high but the intensity of drought is weak. The first mode of EOF of annual scale SPEI shows that the whole Guangdong has experienced an evolution trend of drought or flood, and the corresponding time coefficient shows that Guangdong Province has a worse drought trend, which is closely related to the sea surface temperature in the east-central equatorial Pacific. The second mode of EOF of annual scale SPEI is closely related to the western Pacific subtropical high. The third mode of EOF of annual scale SPEI is significantly related to the land-sea contrasts. The ESMD analysis shows that the average annual scale SPEI is dominated by a 3.1-year period at inter-annual timescales and a 12.5-year period at the inter-decadal timescales. In addition, the trend residual R also indicates drought trend in Guangdong Province. In summary, the trend of drought in Guangdong Province is gradually prominent, which is characterized by high frequency and weak intensity of drought.