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From online news: Coastal heavy and chemical industries may get out of control; limits will be set for two sea areas. Even before the accident at Tianjin Port XX, the risk of an excessive scale of heavy and chemical industries in coastal areas had already raised concerns. The \"National Marine Functional Zone Plan\" (hereinafter referred to as the \"Plan\"), approved for implementation by the State Council this Thursday, proposes to restrict the scale of heavy and chemical industries in the waters around the Yangtze River estuary and its surrounding areas, as well as in the Bohai Bay area. The aforementioned Plan was issued on August 1. The \"National Marine Functional Zone Plan\" is an important part of the \"National Functional Zone Plan\", and it is also the first action plan that imposes constraints on local marine development planning. Chen Jianjun, director of the Center for Regional and Urban Development at Zhejiang University, told Jiemian News that the introduction of this Plan is expected to enable orderly and steady progress in marine development, thereby preventing it from getting out of control. The Plan mentions two major sea areas in which the scale of heavy and chemical industries will be controlled; among them, the Yangtze River Estuary and the sea areas surrounding it include Nantong City in Jiangsu Province, Shanghai, as well as the adjacent sea areas of Jiaxing City, Hangzhou City, Shaoxing City, Ningbo City, Zhoushan City, and Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province ； The Bohai Bay area includes the waters adjacent to Qinhuangdao, Tangshan, Cangzhou cities in Hebei Province, as well as Tianjin. According to incomplete statistics from Jiemian News, alone this year, there are still nearly 40 large-scale heavy industry projects under construction or in the approval process in the aforementioned provinces and cities. According to the lists of major projects in the relevant provinces and cities for 2015, Nantong had 5 energy and petrochemical projects; the aforementioned cities in Zhejiang had 21 heavy industry projects, while the aforementioned cities in Hebei had 7 such projects. In addition, there were several projects that were under construction to ensure operation, as well as preliminary projects. And even before that, the heavy and chemical industries had already excessively \"claimed\" coastal areas. A survey conducted in 2012 by the Institute of Industrial Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed that in the eastern coastal regions, heavy and chemical industries above a certain scale accounted for more than 50% of the total industrial output. Five of the country’s seven major petrochemical hubs are located along the coast, with most of the country’s crude oil processing capacity concentrated in these coastal areas. Six of the country’s nine major steel production hubs are also situated along the coast. From the Bohai Bay at the northern end to the Beibu Gulf at the southwestern outlet, heavy and chemical industries such as ports, metallurgy, refining, and shipbuilding are densely concentrated there. According to a review by Jiemian News, alone in the area between the Bohai Bay and the Yangtze River Estuary, various provinces and cities have made heavy and chemical industries an important part of their coastal industrial plans. The Lingang Industrial Zone in Tanggu, Tianjin, aims to develop a petrochemical base and industrial park of world-class scale, modern standards, international competitive advantages, and sustainable development potential. Metallurgy and the chemical industry are also among Tianjin’s six key industrial sectors ； Hebei’s strategic role for the coastal areas is that of a major national base for new-type industrialization. For large-scale industrial projects that comply with **industrial policies and are intended to be relocated to the coast, priority is given in terms of land allocation, with full support provided to help the coastal economic zones develop. By 2015, the gross domestic product of the 11 coastal counties (cities, districts) was to double compared to 2010, rising from 220 billion yuan to 880 billion yuan; the added value of industries above a certain scale was to increase from 90 billion yuan to 360 billion yuan, while total fiscal revenue was to rise from 27 billion yuan to 110 billion yuan ； By 2020, the key economic indicators will double again compared to 2015. In accordance with the requirements of the \"Steel Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan,\" Shandong Province has promoted the development of a high-quality steel production base in Rizhao, while focusing on the development of port-related industries such as advanced marine equipment manufacturing, automobile parts production, and oil and gas storage and processing. In 2014, heavy and chemical industries accounted for 70% of the industrial output in Shandong Province that fell within the designated scale. Jiangsu has essentially developed five key industrial sectors, including petrochemicals and metallurgy. Along the Yangtze River, from Nanjing to Shanghai, there are 8 large-scale chemical industrial zones located near ports. From Nanjing to Nantong, the cities along the river have all chosen heavy industry as the main sector for their development along the riverbank. In 2013, in accordance with the implementation guidelines for the \"Su Nan Modernization Demonstration Zone Plan,\" Jiangsu required that heavy industries such as petrochemicals located around its central cities be relocated to coastal areas. Zhejiang’s chemical manufacturing industry is also among the seven key industrial sectors, with the Hangzhou Bay area making steady progress toward becoming a petrochemical industrial zone. Zhejiang aims to have the industrial added value of heavy and chemical industries in the Lingang area account for over 10% of the province’s total industrial output by 2020, turning it into an international hub for advanced manufacturing in these sectors. The implementation of these plans triggered a boom in heavy industry development along China’s coast, while also leading to marine pollution and safety hazards. In recent years, China has experienced several major incidents of industrial pollution along its coast, such as the XX incident at Dalian New Port in 2010 and the resulting oil spill, as well as the risk of a leak from xylene storage tanks at Dalian Fujia Da Hua in 2011. Furthermore, the volume of pollutants entering rivers continues to increase; in 2010, the amount of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, and total phosphorus carried by rivers increased significantly compared to the previous year. Liaodong Bay, Bohai Bay, and Laizhou Bay remain severe areas affected by marine pollution. The large-scale construction in the Lingang heavy chemical industry zone, the frequent carrying out of coastal engineering projects, large-scale land reclamation and marine aquaculture, the overexpansion and disorderly development of marine engineering activities, as well as port and shipping operations, have all led to the loss of a large amount of coastal wetlands in China. This has weakened or even eliminated the ecological self-recovery capacity of nearby marine areas, resulting in an increasingly fragile marine ecosystem.