A Chinese fisherman prepares to move his fishing nets onto his boat and go to sea in the East China Sea in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, southeast China. File Photo by Wu hong/EPA
For decades, China’s maritime identity has been defined by scale: It produces and consumes the most seafood, pilots the most expansive fishing fleet and maintains a dominant presence across the South China Sea.
Amid collapsing fish stocks, accelerating coral bleaching and mounting geopolitical friction, Beijing is recalibrating its approach. The shift remains gradual and incomplete, yet it reflects a growing recognition within China’s policy apparatus that long-term maritime influence cannot be built on extraction and enforcement alone — it must also be anchored in conservation.
The question is no longer whether China will take part in global ocean governance, but whether it aims to shape it — and potentially lead it. That ambition is underscored by its ratification last year of the historic High Seas Treaty, the U.N.-backed pact to protect marine life in international waters beyond national control.
“In regard to China’s Treaty ratification, I don’t think it’s a simple choice between showing leadership and seeking a strategic edge. The reality is that China now realizes its own long term interests, like food security and deep-sea research and its dependence on stable and rules-based oceans,” said Yong Chen, professor of marine science at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York.
Ecological pressure meets strategic reality
The South China Sea remains one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems, feeding hundreds of millions and connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. But overfishing, coastal industrialization and warming waters have degraded habitats and strained fisheries across the region.
The science is measurable and visible. Coral reef systems have suffered repeated bleaching events. Fish stocks in parts of the South China Sea have declined sharply over the past two decades. Rising ocean temperatures and acidification compound local pressures.
China has responded by expanding its network of marine protected areas, now numbering more than 300 and covering roughly 13% of its claimed waters. Official figures show about 4% China’s total sea area designated as marine protected zones.
Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook, advocates that designating marine protected areas is only a starting point, warning that without enforcement, ecological connectivity and science-based management, such zones risk remaining little more than lines on a map. The true measure of success, she said, is whether biodiversity actually rebounds.
In semi-enclosed waters such as the South China Sea, ecological connectivity is essential: fish stocks and coral reef systems move across boundaries that politics cannot contain. Strengthening ecological corridors and expanding regional data-sharing would mark a tangible step toward long-term stability and cooperative ocean governance.
Science diplomacy in contested waters
The South China Sea remains one of the world’s most volatile maritime theaters, marked by coast guard standoffs and sovereignty disputes. Yet, even as geopolitical tensions sharpen, marine scientific cooperation has quietly expanded.
Joint work on tsunami preparedness, data-sharing on ocean conditions and renewed calls for collaborative research under the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties point to an emerging recognition that science helps unite rather than divide.
Chinese marine scholars increasingly frame scientific research as a pathway for cooperation among South China Sea claimants — a pragmatic entry point where data sharing and joint study can proceed even as sovereignty disputes persist.
In this context, marine protected areas are taking on a dual role. Beyond conserving biodiversity, they are emerging as practical diplomatic platforms, supporting joint reef monitoring, shared fish-stock assessments and regional training programs that can build trust and tamp down incidents at sea.
“We must always keep discussions and joint studies going, even if effective actions have been minimal,” claimed Professor John McManus at the University of Miami’s Rosentiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science and a leading proponent of the Marine Peace Park concept.
Such efforts would not resolve sovereignty disputes. But they could embed environmental cooperation into a more substantive regional Code of Conduct, shifting attention from crisis management toward sustainable resource governance.
A global governance opening
China’s domestic recalibration is unfolding alongside a rapidly shifting international landscape. As Washington has yet to ratify the High Seas Treaty and has stepped back from several multilateral environmental commitments, a diplomatic vacuum has begun to emerge. Beijing is moving to occupy that space.
Chinese policymakers are increasingly casting marine governance through the prism of “ecological civilization,” linking environmental protection to long-term economic development. In practice, Beijing has backed global moves to curb harmful fisheries subsidies and is urging caution on deep-sea mining, arguing that more scientific evidence is needed before large-scale exploitation.
Reframing legitimacy at sea
Beijing’s leadership is increasingly being judged not only by naval power, but by its stewardship of the global commons — a shift that could reshape perceptions of maritime legitimacy. Where 20th-century sea power was measured in tonnage, patrols and port access, the 21st century is placing growing strategic weight on environmental responsibility.
China’s bid to cast itself as a leader in ocean governance will take center stage next month at the 25th annual Boao Forum in Hainan. A dedicated session, “Marine Environmental Protection: Forging a New Pattern of China-ASEAN Ocean Governance,” is designed to showcase Beijing’s push to align conservation, scientific cooperation and regional diplomacy.
The forum will give China and Southeast Asian partners a venue to advance marine protection, expand data sharing and test joint stewardship models in the South China Sea and beyond.
The choice of Hainan is deliberate. The island sits at the geographic and political gateway to the South China Sea — both a frontline of China’s maritime ambitions and a focal point of its historical narrative.
Drake Tien, a senior adviser at geopolitical risk start-up Seldon Labs, notes that official Chinese maps from the 18th and 19th centuries consistently marked Hainan as the southernmost limit of Chinese territory. Those depictions, while historically contested, remain embedded in nationalist narratives and help explain why Beijing is using Hainan as the stage to promote a modern vision of ocean governance rooted in science, conservation and regional cooperation.
Marine conservation has moved beyond environmental management into the realm of geopolitics, where scientific collaboration can serve as a form of track-two diplomacy by prioritizing shared ecological challenges over contested boundaries.
For Southeast Asian states navigating between major powers, environmental cooperation offers a pragmatic middle ground. Fisheries sustainability, coral restoration and disaster resilience align with domestic development priorities and food security needs.
Chinese strategists are floating a South China Sea Marine Science Consortium to connect ASEAN claimants, widen data-sharing and test cross-border conservation zones. According to Stony Brook’s Professor Chen, the payoff is simple: build baseline trust and lower the risk of dangerous encounters at sea.
If China can demonstrate that environmental responsibility accompanies maritime power, it could redefine what major-power leadership looks like at sea.
“China recently declared Scarborough Shoal, a flashpoint feature, a marine protected area. It remains to be seen whether this measure will improve the reef’s ecosystem and contribute to repopulating fish stocks,” said Lucio Pitlo III, a Philippine scholar and research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, a Manila-based think tank.
From extraction to stewardship?
China’s maritime transformation remains uneven, with assertive coast guard patrols, a vast fishing fleet and deep economic reliance on marine resources still shaping its behavior. Yet, a policy recalibration is underway, underpinned by expanding scientific capacity, advanced ocean monitoring systems and new conservation commitments, including ratification of the High Seas Treaty and the integration of ecological principles into national strategy.
Whether China’s expanding marine capacity translates into sustained, science-based stewardship will shape the trajectory of its maritime influence. Maritime security scholar Yoga Suharman of the Indonesia Defense University points to recent steps to protect dolphin habitats around Hong Kong, including curbs on fishing-related disturbance, as signs of incremental progress.
China cannot safeguard the oceans alone.
The lesson is clear from coral reefs, which depend on a fragile symbiosis between coral and algae that has endured for hundreds of millions of years but collapses under stress or imbalance.
Ocean governance follows the same logic. Without sustained cooperation and shared stewardship, even the most powerful maritime actors will see their influence, and the ecosystems they rely on, begin to erode.
