CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · History & Society

China Maritime Safety Administration

government agency

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ5099771 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Maritime Safety Administration of the People's Republic of China, commonly known as the China Maritime Safety Administration (China MSA or CMSA), is a civil government agency for maritime safety and regulation law enforcement and rescue, under the Ministry of Transport of China.

The agency is headquartered in Dongcheng, Beijing. The incumbent chief is Fu Xuyin, and the incumbent deputy chief is Xu Wei. In 2025, the Budget of the CMSA was 12.8 billion RMB.

The MSA is separate from the China Coast Guard, which is a branch of the People's Armed Police.

History

CMSA was formed in October 1998 from the merger of the China Ship Inspection Bureau and the China Port Supervision Bureau. The agency is subordinated to the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China.

Organization

Subordinate Offices

The MSA's subordinate offices include:

General Office

Policy and Legislation Office

Planning and Equipment Office

Financial Affairs and Accountancy Office

Human Resources and Training Office

Traffic Management Office

Ship Inspection Office

Dangerous Goods and Pollution Prevention Management Office

Ship Survey Management Office

Ship Technical Specification Office

Mariners Management Office

Safety Management Office

Navigation Service Management Office

Fee Collection Office

Science, Technology, and Information Office

International Cooperation Office

Accounting Office

Party Work Department

Information Office

Disciplinary Inspection Office

Party Committees Office

Units Directly Subordinate to the Ministry of Transport

Northern Navigation Service Center (交通运输部北海航海保障中心)

Eastern Navigation Service Center (交通运输部东海航海保障中心)

Southern Navigation Service Center (交通运输部南海航海保障中心)

The China Rescue and Salvage Bureau operates as an independent entity under the Ministry of Transport, but it shares personnel and leadership with the MSA.

Operational organizations

The MSA operates primarily along the PRC coastline and the Yangtze River basin, Pearl River basin, and Heilongjiang River basin. The MSA maintains 15 Regional MSAs, some covering more than one of the 20 coastal and riverine provinces, under which 97 local branches have been established.

Regional MSAs

Shanghai MSA

Tianjin MSA

Liaoning MSA

Hebei MSA

Shandong MSA

Jiangsu MSA

Zhejiang MSA

Fujian MSA

Guangdong MSA

Guangxi MSA

Hainan MSA

Changjiang MSA

Heilongjiang MSA

Shenzhen MSA

Lianyungang MSA

Mission

The MSA administers all matters related to maritime and shipping safety, including the supervision of maritime traffic safety and security, prevention of pollution from ships, inspection of ships and offshore facilities, navigational safety measures (including Search and Rescue, Aids to Navigation and the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System), administrative management of port operations, and law enforcement on matters of maritime safety law. It was also responsible for marine accident investigation.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “China Maritime Safety Administration” as government agency. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around China, Maritime and Safety.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2025, 1998—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1998-10. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with China, Maritime and Safety providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “China Maritime Safety Administration”, the useful work is to connect “government agency” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5099771. VIAF identifies the subject as 130405321. The Library of Congress control number is n2007025921. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2025 and 1998.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “China Maritime Safety Administration”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow China Maritime Safety Administration primary sources, China Maritime Safety Administration archive and China research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “China Maritime Safety Administration”?
  2. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “China Maritime Safety Administration” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.