Evaluation of China’s marine ecological environment protection policies: a quantitative analysis of policy texts based on PMC indices

Marine ecological environmental protection constitutes a core component of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and it plays a pivotal role in advancing the development of a global marine community with a shared future.This study adopts the PMC index model to systematically analyze the evolutionary characteristics of 30 marine ecological environmental protection policies issued by the Chinese government between 2015 and 2024, aiming to offering valuable insights for national marine ecological environment protection efforts. The study shows that: (1) The mean value of the PMC index of China’s marine ecological environment protection policies reaches 6.243, which achieve outstanding performance in goal consistency, resource allocation, implementation efficiency and social impact. (2) China’s marine ecological environment protection policies are relatively excellent in areas such as policy evaluation, policy focus, policy instruments, policy characteristics, policy functions and policy areas, but they exhibit weaknesses in policy scope, policy timeliness and issuing institutions. (3) There are significant differences in the effectiveness of policy implementation. The case of Fujian Province further highlights the critical role of policy text design in marine ecological environment governance.This study provides actionable theoretical references for advancing the delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and facilitating global marine ecological governance worldwide.