According to a report released on Wednesday by the State Oceanic Administration, China has reached its highest sea level since 1980 based on the organization's sea level monitoring data last year, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Data shows that in 2016, the Chinese coast tallied an average sea level that is higher by 38 mm than last year and by 82 mm than the statistic between 1993 and 2011.
The oceanic administration further took note that the sea level readings in the country's coastal regions increased by an average rate of 3.2 mm annually from 1980 until last year.
The report explained the highest sea-level phenomenon is largely caused by the influences of climate change and the El Niño and La Niña events.
Vice Director Sun Shuxian stressed that higher sea level may bring forth aggravated probabilities of experiencing storm tides, salt tides, seawater encroachment, floods and coastal erosion.
In a separate report released by the administration on the same day, China's marine environment is described as "basically stable" in 2016.
Nonetheless, the administration enumerated some "outstanding problems" which includes offshore pollution, unhealthy marine ecosystem and other environmental risks like red tide reoccurrence.
Over the past period, China has launched intensified efforts to combat threats of climate change in order to protect the environment.
Last month, the European Union reportedly eyed China to take the lead in the global battle against climate change as the Donald Trump-led U.S. threatens to pull out of the landmark 2015 Paris agreement.
For his part, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged the U.S. to stay in the Paris climate deal, as what he remarked in a message during the World Economic Forum's annual conference.
Around the same time, Xie Zhenhua, the China's ambassador to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, remarked that the country is "capable of taking a leadership in combating global climate change."
Analysts see this opportunity for China to cooperate with other countries, especially with the nations within the Asian region.
"Asian countries share a common interest for climate action. More leadership from China will help it build international credibility, cultivate trust in the region and ease tension in other areas," researcher Song Ranping remarked.