Drawing a New Blueprint for Governance on the "Blue Homeland" — Shandong Maritime Safety Administration's New Era Maritime Civilization Practices

In July this year, at Dongying Port in Shandong, the largest maritime law enforcement vessel in the northern sea area, "Haixun 11," welcomed a special group of guests—over 200 primary and secondary school students boarded the deck, and the "Mobile Maritime Civilization Classroom" began as scheduled.

"What is the principle of ship side thrust?" "What rescue missions have you participated in?" The children eagerly asked questions, and the crew patiently answered them one by one. Amidst the laughter, the seeds of safeguarding the "blue territory" were quietly planted in the children's hearts. This is a vivid example of the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration's efforts to promote maritime spiritual civilization and a daily snapshot of its work to enhance public awareness of the "blue territory" and extend the practice of modern civilization to the sea.

"In recent years, we have closely adhered to the overall goal of 'uniting the masses, guiding the masses, cultivating people with culture, and transforming customs,' deeply integrating maritime civilization practices into the construction of a modern and strong maritime administration. This has promoted the resonance and mutual empowerment of spiritual civilization construction and core work, providing strong ideological assurance and powerful spiritual motivation for building a modern maritime regulatory service system aligned with a strong transportation nation," said Ma Daojiu, Party Secretary and Director of the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration.

Bringing Education to the Sea, Directly Reaching the Frontline

For a long time, maritime workers have been dispersed, and their time at sea is lengthy, making traditional legal education difficult to reach the frontline. The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration broke the boundaries of traditional classrooms by moving the "Maritime Lecture Hall" to the enforcement frontline, ship decks, and fishing ports.

"There are no meeting rooms in the surrounding villages, and it's hard to gather people, so we take the initiative to go out to the beach and give lectures near the bow of the ships," said a staff member from the Qingdao Qianhai (Laoshan) Maritime Office. The office innovatively created a "beach classroom," regularly conducting legal education and practical ship training for yacht owners in the jurisdiction. In 2024, this grassroots-friendly teaching model was included in Qingdao's community service projects.

In recent years, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has established the "Haiqing Lecture Team" and built a three-dimensional communication network combining "online + offline" and "shore-based + maritime" approaches to achieve comprehensive legal education. Offline, the administration has focused on laws and regulations such as the "Maritime Traffic Safety Law of the People's Republic of China," regularly conducting special campaigns like "Constitution Publicity Week" and "Prevention of Collisions Between Commercial and Fishing Vessels." They have distributed over 20,000 legal education materials and answered questions for more than 50,000 people. Online, they have created "fingertip classrooms" through platforms like WeChat and mobile apps, providing lightweight legal education content to over 100,000 maritime workers, enabling them to learn anytime and anywhere.

While promoting legal education "silently," the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has adhered to political guidance to establish a foundation for civilized practices. Relying on a three-tier party-building responsibility list, the administration has implemented three major projects: "Leading Goose," "Fortress," and "Pioneer." They have promoted grassroots party-building "secretary projects," deepened the "Four Seas as One Family" coordination mechanism, and established a maritime wind power party-building alliance, linking regulatory and service chains through party-building.

Ideological guidance fosters consensus, and institutional support promotes transformation. To continuously translate theoretical empowerment into practice, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has promoted the implementation of the "Shandong Province Maritime Search and Rescue Regulations," becoming the first in the country to issue the "Shandong Province Maritime Search and Rescue Center and Its Office Work Rules." They have deeply participated in the revision of the "Shandong Province Waterway Traffic Regulations" and guided coastal cities to issue municipal-level maritime traffic safety regulations, forming a "one city, one regulation" local legislative framework. Through systematic and refined institutional support, the administration has effectively addressed regulatory challenges in the Bohai Bay waters, offshore oil and gas, and new coastal industries, solidifying the concept of civilization into behavioral norms and transforming civilized practices into governance norms.

Ensuring Maritime Safety and Laying a Foundation of Security

Only by maintaining a solid safety baseline can development be assured. In recent years, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has shifted safety governance toward prevention, ensuring high-quality development with high-level safety and laying a foundation of security for maritime civilization practices.

Faced with scattered and hidden maritime risks, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has built a comprehensive risk prevention and control system, establishing a closed-loop management mechanism for "anomaly detection—information transfer—verification and handling—result feedback." They have handled over 10,000 maritime anomalies and deepened the three-year action plan for tackling root causes of safety production. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the administration ensured the efficient transportation of 7.089 million ships and 7.87 billion tons of cargo, as well as the safe travel of 163 million passengers.

Maritime safety governance cannot rely on individual efforts; multi-party collaboration and coordinated governance are necessary to weave a comprehensive safety net. The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has focused on creating a multi-stakeholder governance framework, signing the "Bohai Rim Maritime Regulation and Service Guarantee Integrated Construction Collaborative Promotion Framework Agreement," and collaborating with meteorological agencies and universities to establish a maritime meteorological cooperation demonstration zone in the central and southern Yellow Sea. They have led nine maritime-related departments to establish the "Four Seas as One Family" coordination mechanism, promoted the transformation and improvement of safety management in shipping companies, explored the implementation of comprehensive credit management for waterway traffic safety, and established the Shandong Coastal Ship Safety Self-Discipline Alliance, creating a new maritime safety framework of mutual efforts between corporate self-discipline and administrative regulation.

Emergency rescue is the last line of defense for maritime safety. Centered around the "Haixun 11" vessel, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has formed a patrol coordination fleet of 477 transport vessels and a rescue volunteer fleet of 1,641 high-powered fishing vessels, regularly conducting comprehensive emergency drills for commercial and fishing vessels, offshore wind power, and other scenarios. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the administration organized 422 rescue operations, successfully saving 2,259 people and 86 vessels, and efficiently handling major incidents such as the "Zhonghua Fuxiang" ship fire and the "Symphony" ship oil spill, demonstrating professional and efficient emergency response to safeguard the vast blue seas.

Serving the Seas and Delivering Maritime Warmth

The practice of maritime civilization in the new era goes beyond coastal education and improved systems; it is also rooted in frontline port and shipping operations, safeguarding industrial development, and providing practical support to warm the hearts of seafarers on long voyages.

"Adhering to the principle of 'people-centered development,' we focus the essence of civilized practices on addressing the urgent and pressing concerns of the public. Through high-quality services, we promote the high-quality development of the marine economy, effectively transforming the achievements of civilization creation into practical results that enhance industries, relieve enterprises, and benefit the public," said Ma Daojiu.

Focusing on the broader development agenda, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has formulated and implemented a five-year action plan for building a strong transportation nation, undertaking 18 national and provincial pilot projects. They have supported the activation of 44 berths for external use, ensured the construction of key projects such as the Dongjiakou Crude Oil Terminal and Yantai West Port Area, and took the lead in introducing special measures to support the shipbuilding and marine equipment industries and research institutions, ensuring the safe delivery of large offshore platforms and newly built ships.

Addressing the pain points and challenges of shipping enterprises, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has innovated route planning, pioneering the designation of long-distance sea routes and constructing a "1 vertical, 2 horizontal, 64 branch lines" maritime network. They piloted water-to-water transshipment with "one-box" and "one-bill" systems, increasing the direct docking rate of large container ships by 16%. They also innovatively implemented "non-stop" certification for inland waterway vessels, promoting the full reopening of the Xiaoqing River and connecting Shandong's "1 vertical, 3 horizontal" inland waterway transportation system, continuously invigorating the development of the port and shipping economy.

In line with the trend of green and low-carbon shipping development, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration facilitated the commissioning of the nation's first hydrogen-electric tugboat and the trial operation of the intelligent ship "Zhifei." They completed the first coastal hydrogen fuel refueling for ships and the first B24 biofuel oil refueling at northern ports. Additionally, to support the green and efficient development of new foreign trade industries, the administration compiled the "Shandong Coastal Port Lithium Battery Energy Storage System Waterway Transportation Guide," facilitating the convenient export of the "new three items" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products).

With a focus on ocean-going workers, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration led the drafting of the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of a High-Quality Crew Team," established a crew industry party committee and service stations, and released the "Crew Shore Leave Service Guide."

On June 25, 2025, the centralized signing ceremony for the Shandong Crew Remote Medical Consultation Service Agreement was held at the Qingdao International Seafarers Service Center, marking the official establishment of the remote medical consultation mechanism for Shandong crew members.

"Long-term voyages at sea make it difficult to seek timely medical attention for sudden illnesses. Now, we can consult professional doctors online, which makes going to sea much more reassuring," said a seafarer who has been working on long-distance routes, expressing heartfelt gratitude for this thoughtful support.

Forging the Soul of the Sea and Gathering Strength for Progress

In recent years, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has explored a path of empowering maritime governance modernization through the soft power of industry culture, gathering momentum for maritime progress.

Internally, they have forged their team through civilization-building efforts. The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has promoted the integrated construction of civilized units, windows, and teams, earning five national civilized unit titles, five Shandong provincial civilized unit titles, and establishing four national youth civilization posts.

Civilization-building is not just about accumulating honors but also an important means of uniting and inspiring the team. For seven consecutive years, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has conducted the "Our Role Models" selection, with over 620 collectives and individuals receiving provincial and ministerial honors, and public satisfaction remaining above 98%. "Whether our work is good or not is not measured by how thick the records are or how many awards we have, but by whether our seafarer brothers can dock safely and whether passengers have smiles on their faces when crossing the sea," said Ma Zhenxing, a national outstanding Communist Youth League member from the Weihai Maritime Safety Administration. His simple words reflect the conscious actions of Shandong maritime personnel to "write civilization into the blue sea."

Externally, they have released industry influence through a cultural matrix. In recent years, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has built a cultural brand system led by "Heart Sailing with the Boat," integrating resources such as patrol vessels and maritime exhibition halls to create multi-point linkage platforms like the Weifang Maritime Civilization Practice Base and the Chengshantou Maritime Exhibition Hall. Among them, the Chengshantou Maritime Exhibition Hall was selected as one of the first national water safety education bases, and the "Mobile Maritime Civilization Classroom" extended civilization dissemination from fixed venues to mobile vessels, shifting from "people coming to us" to "us going to the people," allowing maritime culture and safety awareness to travel with ships and reach every port.

Rooted in the community, they have united social consensus through volunteer services. The vitality of civilized practices lies in public participation and recognition. The Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has strengthened distinctive brands such as the Weihai "Little Conch" and the Yantai Maritime Volunteer Service Corps. The Yantai Maritime Volunteer Service Corps was awarded the China Youth Volunteer Outstanding Organization Award. Additionally, the Shandong Maritime Safety Administration has conducted water safety knowledge campaigns in schools and communities for ten consecutive years and regularly organized sea-cleaning and sea-protection actions, sowing the seeds of love and protection for the sea in the hearts of coastal residents.

From the children's questions on the deck of the "Haixun 11" vessel to the focused expressions of fishermen listening in the "beach classroom"; from the relaxed brows of ocean-going seafarers during video consultations to the heartfelt praise of enterprises during the efficient customs clearance of "new three items" cargo—these seemingly small moments collectively piece together the most authentic and moving picture of Shandong Maritime's new era of maritime civilization practices.