China

China is the world’s largest producer of wild-caught fisheries.1 It also operates the world’s largest fishing fleet2 – including an industrial, domestic fleet and an extensive distant water fleet that operates in foreign and international waters. Reform of China’s fisheries sector reportedly led to a 31 per cent decline in commercial fishing vessel numbers between 2002 and 2014 and improved marine protection and fisheries restoration.3 Previous research has identified China’s fishing sector as high-risk for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,4 labour exploitation and modern slavery.5

China has some elements of a fisheries governance system, yet it has demonstrated little progress towards restoring fish stocks. Of the total catch in Chinese national waters, most (68 per cent) comes from unassessed stocks, and its status remains unknown. Additionally, 37 of the 58 stocks assessed (64 per cent) of fish stocks are considered to be overfished. While China has developed some elements of a fisheries governance system, major gaps remain in the lack of science-based management and limited implementation and enforcement of fisheries rules and regulations. Urgent action is needed to expand management and improve stock sustainability to protect China’s fisheries for the future.

Recommendations

Progress towards SDG target 14.4

China performs in the bottom one-third of countries globally in terms of progress towards achieving SDG target 14.4 and demonstrates limited progress towards ensuring all fish stocks within its waters are sustainably managed.

China’s Progress score is hindered by the large proportion of catch (68 per cent) in its waters that comes from unassessed stocks, which lack official published assessments or do not have quantitative data available to estimate stock health.

Additionally, of the 58 fish stocks assessed, only 21 stocks (36 per cent) are estimated to be at sustainable levels of abundance. These stocks account for less than 10 per cent of the catch in China’s national waters. The majority of China’s catch is either from overfished stocks (23 per cent of catch) or from stocks that are unassessed (68 percent of catch).

Fisheries governance

Globally and regionally, China performs in the mid-range of countries for its governance capacity. China has some elements of a fisheries governance system that, where implemented, promotes sustainable fishing. However, major gaps remain in terms of a lack of high-quality fisheries information to inform science-based management, limited action to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and lack of enforcement of fleet registration and licencing.

China has a national fisheries policy with clearly stated environmental, economic and livelihood objectives. However, China has not committed to several international agreements for fisheries management and the protection of worker rights and safety in fisheries. This includes the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement, the 2009 FAO Agreement on Port State Measures, the 2007 ILO Work in Fishing Convention (No. 188) and the 2012 IMO Cape Town Agreement. Furthermore, China is yet to adopt a National Plan of Action to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing.

There is evidence that China has financial and professional capacity to manage fisheries resources. For example, key fisheries such as the largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) are managed using science-based catch and/or effort limits. Encouragingly, management decisions in this fishery are evidence-based and made using harvest control rules – pre-determined rules that guide management action, based on the state of fisheries resources. However, there is evidence that fisheries data– such as self-reported catch and fishing effort– is not regularly collected, and where collected, is not independently verified. Furthermore, these science-based catch and/or effort limits are yet to be used across all fisheries.

China performs in the bottom one-third of Asian countries in terms of controlling access to its fisheries resources. While China uses vessel registration and licencing systems to monitor fishing in its waters, authorities face considerable challenges enforcing these requirements. For example, known instances of illegal and unregulated vessels that lack a name, ship certificate and registered port6^,7 undermine China’s ability to monitor the size of its fishing fleet.8^,9

China allows for foreign fishing in national waters via bilateral- and/or multi-lateral agreements. For example, fishing agreements exist with Japan and South Korea, which share historical fishing grounds with China. Foreign-flagged vessels conducted the equivalent of approximately 190 observed fishing days in Chinese waters in 2019. Although this represents only a small proportion of fishing activity in China’s national waters, foreign fishing vessels must be continually monitored for compliance with fisheries rules and regulations.

Although China has a coastal fisheries management area that excludes large-scale fishing vessels, it underperforms in terms of protecting key habitats and ecosystems. This is primarily due to the designation of less than one per cent of its waters as marine protected areas. The ‘ecological red-line’ policy, initiated in 2011, may facilitate the expansion of spatial management of fisheries in the future.10

High levels of fishing subsidies further complicate China’s efforts to ensure fishing in its waters is sustainable. Over 90 per cent – estimated at US$5.6 billion in 2018 – of China’s fisheries subsidies including reduced fuel prices and tax exemptions are linked to potentially harmful programs that promote overcapacity. While these subsidies encourage industry development, they are also linked to overfishing, particularly in the industrial sector.11 Since 2016, efforts to cut harmful subsidies have progressed,12 including within distant water fleets and illegally operating vessels.

Despite China’s strongly centralised government system, fisheries management is largely devolved to local or provincial levels, providing stakeholders with opportunities to participate in decision-making. However, some stakeholder groups – notably civil society organisations and non-government organisations – remain absent or under-represented. Additionally, there may be limited stakeholder capacity to effectively engage due to a lack of transparency around decision-making, for example through not publishing management meeting minutes.

Key metrics

Methods and data sources

We consider Macao Special Administrative Region as part of China for the purpose of the Global Fishing Index assessment. China is also considered part of the Central, Southern, Eastern and South-East Asian region for comparative purposes. Note, Taiwan, Province of China, was assessed separately due to independent reporting of fisheries catch to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Refer to the Technical Methods for a detailed explanation of the methods used by the Minderoo Foundation to produce the 2021 Global Fishing Index. The Technical Methods should be read in conjunction with the Global Fishing Index Key Insights report, Governance Conceptual Framework and Indicator Codebook.

China’s Progress score was informed by 58 assessed fish stocks. Fifteen stocks had recent published official stock assessments, including seven assessments from regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs). The remaining 43 stocks were assessed using publicly available data and established data limited methods (CMSY++ or the Bayesian Schaefer Model).13^,14 These assessments were conducted during a data-limited stock assessment workshop held in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China from June 18-20, 2019. Catch and stock sustainability estimates were reviewed by one local fisheries expert, prior to finalisation.

China’s governance assessment was informed by interviews with four local fisheries experts and the publicly available literature. Consulted references are listed in the bibliography below. Our assessment measures country-level fisheries governance, with eight indicators referring specifically to a country’s most valuable fishery, as identified by respondents. The most valuable fishery identified for China was the largehead hairtail, Trichiurus lepturus.