Evolution of mariculture policies in China: Experience and challenge

China's mariculture has experienced significant development with the support of mariculture policies since 1978. At present, how to improve the sustainable development of mariculture in China has become a priority, which poses new challenges to China's mariculture policies. This paper starts by outlining the evolution of China's mariculture policies, which were divided into three stages: mariculture production period (1979-1994), maidculture integrated management period (1995-2010) and mariculture sustainable development period (2011-present). And evolutionary characteristics of China's mariculture policies were analyzed correspondingly. Mariculture policies in China make great contribution to the prosperity of mariculture. However, promoting the sustainable development of mariculture presents new challenge requirements to China's mariculture policies including: challenge posed by policies implementation, lack of unified mariculture standard, insufficient support for direct stakeholders and objective need for developing long-term planning.