In order to realize non-cooperative target recognition and tracking under weak echo signal, a target recognition and tracking strategy based on single pixel photon counting lidar system was designed, and a target recognition and tracking method was proposed. In this method, first, the 3D point cloud collected by the single-pixel photon counting lidar system was interpolated to obtain the intuitive range image. Then the maximum stable extreme value region algorithm was used to segment the target and background, and the target to be tracked was identified and selected according to the target contour features. Finally, the centroid of the identified target was extracted, and the deviation between the centroid and the scanning center of lidar was used as the error signal, and the servo system was controlled to perform target tracking on the basis of scanning. The experimental results show that when the laser emission energy is 625pJ and the number of echo photons is 25, the system can stably recognize and track the target with a distance of 5m and an angular velocity of about 2mrad/s. It is verified that the strategy and method based on single-pixel photon counting lidar can stably segment the target and background, and correctly extract the target centroid that needs to be recognized, tracked and ranged. It provides an effective and visual detection method for target recognition, tracking and ranging under weak echo signal. Meanwhile, weak signal detection is a necessary condition for long-distance detection. It provides a new technology direction for target detection and recognition tracking at long distance.