Exploring legal gaps and barriers to the use of unmanned merchant ships in China

Autonomous shipping is developing rapidly in China. Zhifei, a 300 TEU unmanned container ship, started its commercial operation in Qingdao on 22 April 2022, and China is positioning itself as one of the world's future leaders in autonomous shipping. The Ministry of Transport and other ministries have meanwhile explicitly expressed the goal of promoting a high-quality intelligent shipping industry. However, legal gaps and barriers to the use of unmanned merchant ships in China have barely been investigated yet. After examining China's legal framework on shipping, it is identified that a series of legal gaps and barriers do currently exist. These concern the legal status of unmanned ships, the safety and security of navigation, seaworthiness and manning requirements, the duties of masters and crew members in preventing pollution, criminal and civil liability, insurance, and so on. In order to resolve these legal gaps and barriers, and thus accommodate the further development of unmanned merchant ships, we therefore recommend the following: First, China should more actively participate in international regulatory exercises of unmanned ships; secondly, more legal research should be encouraged; and thirdly, domestic legislations should be further clarified or amended, and/or separate unmanned ship legislation may be considered.