The ocean, the cradle of life, the source of human civilization.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that promoting Chinese-style modernization must promote high-quality development of the marine economy and embark on a path to becoming stronger with Chinese characteristics.

To promote high-quality development of the marine economy, how can we pay more attention to innovation-driven development, more attention to efficient coordination, more attention to industrial renewal, more attention to harmony among the people and the sea, and more attention to win-win cooperation?

The guests were recording the large-scale all-media interview program of the 22nd episode of the "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua

On the 13th, Xinhua News Agency launched the 22nd "China Economic Roundtable" large-scale all-media interview program, inviting Ma Weichen, deputy director of the Regional Coordinated Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, Gu Wu, director of the Department of Marine Strategic Planning and Economics of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Li Shuangjian, deputy director and researcher of the National Marine Information Center, and Wang Rentang, director of the Shandong Provincial Ocean Bureau, to jointly discuss the high-quality development of the marine economy.

Prosper in the face of the sea and accelerate the construction of a modern marine industry system

China has more than 18,000 kilometers of mainland coastline and more than 14,000 kilometers of island coastline, with more than 10,000 islands scattered, and about 3 million square kilometers advocates the vast sea area...

"The vast and rich ocean is a strategic space and resource treasure house that supports my country's economic and social development." Gu Wu said.

From marine fishery, ship construction, cruise tourism, to submarine optical cable communication, deep-sea mineral mining, and deep-sea genetic resource utilization, China's marine economic development has been deepening and becoming more practical in recent years.

Ma Weichen, deputy director of the Regional Coordinated Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, made a speech on the spot during the recording of the 22nd "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua

"The connotation of the marine economy has moved from 'cultivation, farming, animal husbandry and fishing' to 'strategic blue'." Ma Weichen said that China has a large-scale, complete categories and complete system of marine industry systems, with all 15 major marine industries, showing the characteristics of large scale, good momentum and excellent quality.

A set of data demonstrates the pace of China's modern marine industrial system construction: China's GDP exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time in 2024, more than doubled compared with 2012; maritime freight and container throughput account for about one-third of the world, and marine equipment market share accounts for more than 50% of the world's global market; marine product output ranks first in the world for many years; among the 18 major ship types in the world, 14 new orders in China rank first in the world...

Faced with a complex and severe international situation, China's shipbuilding completion volume, new orders and handheld order volume accounted for more than half of the world market share in the first half of this year, among which the market share of the new order volume remained at a high of 68.3%.

Gu Wu, Director of the Department of Marine Strategic Planning and Economics of the Ministry of Natural Resources, made a speech on the spot during the recording of the 22nd "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua

"The ocean economy is actually not far from the daily lives of ordinary people." Gu Wu gave an example, saying that the oil and gas added to the car may come from deep-sea oil fields, and the electricity charged in the mobile phone may come from offshore wind power. The desalination of seawater alleviates the pressure of water resource shortage, the deep-sea computing power consolidates the digital base, and the deep-sea robots have completed the construction of the path, "the ocean has become a test site for the coordination and deep integration of the first, second and third industries."

The "Nanhai No. 2" drilling platform is drilling in the 19-6 oil field of Huizhou. On March 31, 2025, China National Offshore Oil Corporation announced that my country discovered Huizhou's 1.9-600 million tons oil fields in the eastern waters of the South China Sea. Xinhua News Agency (Photo provided by China National Offshore Oil Corporation)

153 meters long and weigh 83.5 tons! Recently, in the Penglai Port, Shandong Port, three super-large-sized offshore wind blades were loaded here and transported to the test base, becoming a vivid footnote to Shandong's promotion of port construction and port-side industry development in coastal areas. The port group is accelerating the integration of integrated ports, the "Hong Kong, Industry and City" integration projects are accelerating, and the new blueprint of "Shandong on the Sea" is slowly unfolding.

Wang Rentang, director of the Shandong Provincial Ocean Bureau, made a speech on the recording of a large-scale all-media interview program of the 22nd episode of the "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua

Wang Rentang said that Shandong will optimize the port construction layout, improve the port collection and distribution system, improve the port service level, cultivate and strengthen high-end shipping service industries such as shipping finance and shipping insurance, and vigorously develop port-side industries, build major projects such as Yulong Island Refining and Chemical and Rizhao Premium Steel Base, and accelerate the progress from "port group" to "urban group".

Li Shuangjian, deputy director and researcher of the National Oceanic Information Center, made a speech on the spot during the recording of the 22nd "China Economic Roundtable". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Yehua

"When a certain scale and a considerable number of bay cities are scientifically laid out, optimized development and effective management, refined control of marine space and high-quality development of the marine economy can be achieved." Li Shuangjian put forward three suggestions: First, further understand the bay resources and optimize the bay development and protection pattern with the main functional positioning as a guide, and "one bay, one policy" guide differentiated development; second, strengthen the overall assessment and demonstration of the bay's resource and environmental carrying capacity and development potential; third, guide modern marine cities as the guide, create a distinctive bay industrial system according to local conditions, and promote the optimization and integration of port groups, industrial groups, and urban clusters.

Go towards new things and cultivate and develop new marine quality productivity

On May 7, 2024, my country's first domestically produced electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier, Fujian ship, was in its maiden voyage test (drone photo). Posted by Xinhua News Agency (photo taken by Ding Ziyu)

The first domestic electromagnetic catapult aircraft carrier, the Fujian ship was launched, the first domestic large-scale cruise ship "Ida Modu" was completed and operated, and the construction capacity of large LNG transport ships was the world's leading; the "Struggler" manned deep submarine successfully sat at the Mariana Trench, setting a record of 10,909 meters of China's manned deep diving; the "Dream" ocean drilling ship was completed and put into operation, with a maximum drilling depth of 11,000 meters... In recent years, China's independent innovation capabilities in marine science and technology have been continuously improved.

The ocean drilling ship "Dream" (drone photo) berthed at the scientific research terminal of the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey Bureau, taken on November 17, 2024. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei

It should also be noted that compared with the goal of building a strong maritime country, China still has some shortcomings and weaknesses in marine science and technology.

Ma Weichen introduced that in accordance with the deployment of the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission, the National Development and Reform Commission is working with relevant departments to prepare the "15th Five-Year Plan" marine economic development plan and the preparation of special plans in related fields.

On August 1, 2025, super-large-sized offshore wind blades were shipped from Penglai Port, Yantai Port, Shandong Port (drone photo). Xinhua News Agency (photo taken by Tang Ke)

"We will pay more attention to innovation-driven development, deploy a number of key core technologies as soon as possible, and continue to achieve a number of original major achievements, and achieve high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in marine science and technology." Ma Weichen said that at the same time, we will accelerate the transformation and upgrading of traditional marine industries, vigorously develop emerging industries such as offshore wind power and marine biomedicine, and actively cultivate future marine industries.

During this year's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, "Deep Sea Technology" was written into the government work report for the first time. In June, the National Oceanic Comprehensive Testing Site (Deep Sea) was launched in Hainan, with a rich experimental environment area with gradient gradients from hundreds of meters to more than 2,000 meters, providing support for China's basic research on deep-sea science and original innovation in deep-sea technology.

"The ability of deep-sea exploration and development has become an important yardstick for measuring a country's maritime strength." Li Shuangjian believes that it is necessary to strengthen institutional and mechanism reform, increase investment in deep-sea scientific cognition and technological research and development, and lay out the development of deep-sea minerals and genetic resources as an important direction for cultivating new qualitative productivity, and complete the independent controllable and upgraded iteration of key nodes in the deep-sea industrial chain as soon as possible.

How to pay more attention to industrial renewal? Gu Wu said that the Ministry of Natural Resources will take the implementation of the "major project to cultivate new quality productivity in the marine field" as a driving force, strive to promote the large-scale utilization of marine energy, improve the scale of seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization, strengthen the marine drug and biological products industry, and make a forward-looking layout of "artificial intelligence ocean".

A corner of Haitou national-level marine ranch in the Huangqi Peninsula, Lianjiang, Fujian Province, taken on July 3, 2025 (drone photos). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wei Peiquan

Kelp, prawns, yellow croaker... More and more high-quality seawater products are coming to the people's dining tables, and behind this is the in-depth advancement of the construction of "blue granary". Taking Shandong as an example, there are 139 marine ranches at the provincial level, and the output of seawater products in 2024 will reach 8.25 million tons, achieving an added value of over 100 billion yuan.

On May 16, 2025, at Fujian Xinshen Marine Food Co., Ltd., located in Hanjiang District, Putian City, Fujian Province, workers displayed super-large specification live abalone. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wei Peiquan

Wang Rentang said that Shandong will release the potential of "blue grain" with greater efforts, encourage scientific research institutes, universities and seed industry enterprises to jointly carry out the "blue seed industry" innovation action, develop high-quality new varieties suitable for breeding, and at the same time carry out key fishery technology research, promote standardized, industrialized and intelligent production of fishery, and improve the quality and efficiency of marine fishery development.

On May 3, 2025, fishermen drove a sampan to harvest kelp (drone photos) in the kelp breeding area of the Ailun Bay Marine Ranch in Rongcheng City, Shandong Province. Posted by Xinhua News Agency (photo by Li Xinjun)

Win-win cooperation and in-depth participation in global marine governance

The "Snow Dragon 2" docked at Port Littleton, Christchurch, New Zealand, photographed on March 18, 2025. Xinhua News Agency (photo taken by Yan Xinyun)

On June 12 this year, the "Xuelong 2", which completed China's 41st Antarctic scientific expedition mission, returned to the Shanghai home port, which had been away for more than 200 days, setting a record for the longest time a single ship was performed in the history of China's polar investigation.

"This voyage has joined hands with scientific research institutions and scientists from eight countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia to participate." Gu Wu said that providing effective support for Antarctic marine ecological protection and international governance is a vivid practice of China's active participation in international marine governance.

As a responsible major country, China continues to implement the concept of a community with a shared future for the ocean proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, and works with the international community to build a sea of peace, prosperity and beautiful sea.

The country's important weapon, the Jiaolong, has its first international voyage. It carries scientists from eight countries including Canada, Spain, Mexico, etc., and jointly conducts research on marine biodiversity conservation with Chinese scientists.

In response to the United Nations "Decade of Ocean" initiative, China established the "Decade of Ocean" China Committee and formulated a national action plan. So far, my country has approved 9 major international scientific plans, covering typical deep-sea habitats, global marine negative emissions "blue carbon" and global estuary monitoring.

The ocean is the bond of exchanges between peoples of all countries. "The latest statistics show that driven by factors such as favorable visa policies, the popularity of cruise tourism has been high. In the first half of this year, the total number of passengers entering and leaving the cruise port in the country and the number of cruise ships increased by 40.1% and 33.7% year-on-year respectively." Gu Wu gave an example and said that on May Day, more than 400 passengers were handled by Tianjin International Cruise Home Port to handle the "240-hour transit visa-free" procedures, setting a new single-day high since the resumption of flights.

Actively participate in international marine governance and provide more public services. As of the end of 2024, with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as its link and focus, China has held more than 300 training classes, providing training opportunities for more than 6,000 young scholars in developing countries.

With the participation of China, ports around the world will be strung into necklaces of international cooperation like pearls. As a gateway port in China and Europe, the Port of Piraeus in Greece has become the fourth largest container port in Europe; Gwadar Port, the "leading project" of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, is moving towards a logistics hub and industrial base; China and Peru have a high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" key project - Qiankai Port - opens and operates a port, becoming a new Yara land-sea channel in the new era.

On the vast ocean, China's routes to all parts of the world extend every day. In the first half of this year, Fujian Province opened its first direct container liner route for Ecuador, Yancheng Port opened a new direct route for Jordan in the Middle East, the Jinhua-Bashi-Baku cross-Caspian International Transport Corridor train was first launched, and Fuzhou-Quanzhou-Thailand sea-rail transport was for the first time.

"China will promote sustainable development of the ocean and build a community with a shared future for the ocean with a more open and inclusive attitude, and more pragmatic and people-friendly cooperation measures." Gu Wu said.