Marine Eco-Environmental Protection in China

I. Improving Marine Eco-Environment for Harmonious Coexistence Between Humans and the Ocean

The ocean is crucial to the survival and development of a people and the security and prosperity of a nation. The protection of the marine eco-environment has a vital bearing on achieving harmony between humanity and nature in the modernization drive.

The Chinese government applies the new development philosophy in all fields, and attaches great importance to marine eco-environmental protection. Factoring in the basic reality and development stage of the country, China has gained a deeper understanding of marine eco-environmental protection, making ongoing efforts to improve the system for this purpose and accelerating the building of a marine eco-civilization.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the country began to develop its marine areas. With this development, a number of environmental problems began to emerge. China placed emphasis on them and paid greater attention to protecting the marine eco-environment. In 1964, the State Oceanic Administration was set up, and before long a mechanism for managing China's marine eco-environment was steadily established. The Marine Environment Protection Law was promulgated in 1982, creating a legal framework for the country's marine protection, and a revision of this law in 1999 led to the addition of eco-environmental conservation in priorities alongside pollution control.

As part of its effort to implement the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Chinese government formulated the China Ocean Agenda 21 to make marine eco-environmental protection more systemic and targeted. In 2023, the Marine Environment Protection Law was revised again, representing a systemic transformation to coordinated land-sea management and overall governance of the marine environment.

To synergize land and sea pollution control and strengthen overall eco-environmental protection, China has incorporated marine protection into the national system of eco-environmental protection. It has gradually strengthened overall planning and coordination between land and sea environmental protection efforts and, on that basis, established an effective system for governing the marine eco-environment. By strengthening marine pollution prevention and control, conserving and restoring marine ecosystems, and launching intensive campaigns for the comprehensive management of key sea areas, China has seen marked improvement in the quality of its marine environment, upgraded services and functions in certain sea areas, and an accelerated pace in the orderly exploitation and utilization of resources and the green transformation of the marine economy.

While China continues to follow best practices in the past, it has been working hard on innovative new approaches to protecting the marine eco-environment and promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and the ocean.

– Respecting nature and prioritizing eco-environmental conservation

Respecting, adapting to, and protecting nature is an established notion in China. China has developed an objective understanding of the laws of marine ecosystems, and, based on the systems' succession and inherent characteristics, works to reinforce their capacity for self-regulation, self-purification, and self-restoration so as to improve their stability, services, and functions.

China has plans in place for worst-case scenarios and prioritizes eco-environmental conservation. It has included eco-environmental progress in the overall plan for marine development, built strong safeguards for marine eco-environmental protection, and utilized marine resources in a well-conceived and rational way. These measures have been put in place to promote harmony between humans and the ocean.

– Integrating conservation and management

Marine eco-environmental protection requires systemic efforts. China adopts a holistic approach to protecting the marine eco-environment, attaching equal importance to development, protection, pollution prevention and control, and restoration. It has improved the management of the marine eco-environment through land-sea coordination, coordinating protection work for rivers and seas, mountain and sea areas, onshore and offshore areas, and upstream and downstream river basins. China has established a mechanism for collaborative protection, governance, supervision, and law enforcement across different regions and departments, in order to create a comprehensive system for governing coastal areas, river basins, and sea areas.

– Enforcing strict supervision in accordance with laws and regulations

China has placed marine eco-environmental protection under the strictest systems and laws. Upholding the principle of governing the ocean by law, it has coordinated and pressed forward with the enactment and revision of relevant laws and regulations, put in place a legal framework for marine eco-environmental protection, and implemented the strictest system for governing the marine eco-environment. It has strengthened routine and whole-process supervision and management of the marine eco-environment, including region-specific control, monitoring and investigation, supervision and law enforcement, and assessment and inspection. Two mechanisms, Central Eco-Environmental Protection Inspection and State Natural Resources Inspection, play a supervisory role in the protection of the marine eco-environment, enforcing strict measures to combat actions that harm the marine eco-environment.

– Pursuing innovation-driven and tech-led development

China is committed to innovation-driven development. The country has strengthened innovation in marine eco-environmental protection technologies, monitoring and evaluation, and institutions and mechanisms. It has made rational decisions and implemented targeted measures to transform and advance protection through digital and smart technology. China assigns a leading role to science and technology in marine eco-environmental protection and the high-quality development of the marine economy, and is committed to overcoming the bottlenecks that hinder further progress. The country now utilizes land, sea, air, and space in its monitoring, governance, and supervision of the marine eco-environment, as well as in its emergency response capabilities and technology.

– Pursuing green transformation and low-carbon development

Blue seas and clean beaches, like lucid waters and lush mountains, are also invaluable assets. Upholding the philosophy of green development and applying it in exploring the sea, China is transforming its model of marine development into one of circular utilization. It has developed eco-tourism, eco-fisheries, and other green industries, expanded its channels for realizing the market value of green products, and promoted high-quality economic development and quality of life in coastal areas through high-standard protection of the marine eco-environment.

With a focus on reducing pollution and its carbon footprint, China has increased its carbon sink potential by developing marine ranching while reducing emissions through offshore wind power and other new models of the green, low-carbon economy. These efforts have accelerated the green, low-carbon transformation of the marine industry and green, low-carbon and sustainable development of the ocean, in line with the country's goals of achieving peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

– Upholding government-led and multi-partner governance

The Chinese government plays a leading role in marine eco-environmental protection through institutional design, planning, supervision, services, and risk prevention. It has established a working mechanism under which the central leadership makes overall plans, provincial authorities assume overall responsibility, and city and county authorities take charge of implementation. Operation entities, factors of trade, and private capital are encouraged to participate in marine eco-environmental protection, to create a sustainable model for the protection and ecological restoration of the marine eco-environment. Through multi-partner governance and synergy from the whole of society, China is striving to build a modern governance system for the marine eco-environment led by Party committees and governments, and joined by enterprises, social organizations, and the general public.

– Putting people first and enabling the broadest participation

China is committed to pursuing environmental benefits for the people, to meet their growing aspirations for a beautiful eco-environment. It takes solid action to tackle prominent marine eco-environmental problems, making the sea more accessible to the public. It works to ensure that the people can have safe and green seafood, enjoy clean beaches, blue seas and azure sky, and safely enjoy the sea with a greater sense of satisfaction and happiness.

China promotes a marine culture that emphasizes harmonious coexistence between humans and the ocean for the people and by the people. In Chinese society, there is now a broad consensus on marine eco-environmental protection, and people are taking an active part in it on their own initiative. This has led to the development of a new protection model characterized by collaboration, participation, and shared benefits across the country.

– Maintaining a global vision and promoting mutually beneficial cooperation

China champions the concept of a maritime community of shared future. With an open mind and a broad vision, it is determined to work together with people around the world, through thick or thin, to tackle challenges to the marine eco-environment and safeguard the common interests of humanity, so that we can bequeath blue skies and clean waters to our future generations.

Following the principles of mutual trust, mutual assistance, and mutual benefit, China promotes international cooperation in marine eco-environmental protection and shares the fruitful results of its work in protecting the marine environment and developing the marine industry, thereby contributing Chinese insight and Chinese strength to the global initiative to make the ocean clean and beautiful.