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In order to understand the role of East Asian subtropical westerly jet (EASWJ) in forecasting summer precipitation in East China, interseasonal pentad characteristics of the EASWJ and their relation to summer precipitation in East China are analyzed with the daily reanalysis data provided by National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP, USA) and daily precipitation data from 714 Chinese meteorological stations during the period 1960-2009. In addition, the daily evolution of the EASWJ and objective quantification of the EASWJ are investigated for the Meiyu season over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River valley. It is found that the EASWJ and summer precipitation bands in East China move simultaneously. Especially, the stationary state and northward shift of the EASWJ are closely associated with the beginning, ending and stabilization of the annually first raining season in South China and Meiyu over these reaches. Analysis on the characteristics of the EASWJ in typical (atypical) Meiyu years over these reaches shows that the EASWJ swings steadily around its climatological position in meridional orientation (with large amplitude). Numerical experiments on an example in 2005 shows that indexes proposed in this study can depict the EASWJ well and should be valuable for application in the operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]