Ship Arrest in China: the Link with Economic and Marine Policy

Ship arrest enables the detention of a ship that has caused damage or owes money without requiring a court judgment. Ship arrest protects the claimant from evasive actions by the shipowner, such as transferring the ship to another company and changing the flag and the ship’s name. The availability of ship arrest goes back several centuries. However, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has developed its domestic ship arrest system over the past 30 years. This article examines quantitatively, for the first time, how the PRC system operates in practice. Between 2014 and 2022, more than 5000 ships were arrested in the PRC. For 2000 of these, court reports are available. Ship arrest operates primarily as security for domestic claims. About 88% of the ships arrested were PRC-flagged ships. Half of these were commercial ships arrested for claims of mortgages and loans, goods and services provided to the ship, and crew wages. About 92% of the foreign ships arrested were commercial ships. These were arrested primarily for provisions and services, and charterparty and cargo claims. The number of berths at the ports supervised by each maritime court correlates well with the number of ship arrests, indicating that the system operates uniformly across the PRC. The number of ship arrests has been declining since 2016. The number of ship arrests with respect to collision claims does not indicate a trend. Ship arrests for pollution claims are uncommon. However, the large number of ships immobilised by arrest poses an environmental issue of wasteful pollution, which needs attention. The significant number of PRC ships arrested reflects an important domestic effect of ship arrest which needs attention. © 2025 taylor & Francis Group, llc