On September 3, at the State Council Information Office press conference for the launch of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the General Administration of Sport of China set the target for the total scale of the sports industry at 7 trillion yuan by 2030. Compared with the 5.12 trillion yuan recorded in 2025, this represents nearly 2 trillion yuan of new market space to be unlocked within five years.
What share can water sports capture within this 7-trillion-yuan market? The answer lies not in the official press release of the conference, but in the recent wave of policy documents issued one after another. The following three signals are rewriting the fundamental rules of the industry.
Signal 1: The Position of the Third Item in the “633” Framework Has Shifted
Behind the 7-trillion-yuan target lies an easily overlooked structural change.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the strategic framework for elite sports is shifting from “targeted breakthroughs” to “comprehensive development” centred on the “633” sports portfolio. Among the “633” grouping, the first “3” refers to three foundational sports: athletics, swimming and water sports.
This marks a qualitative shift in the status of water sports within China’s national elite sports strategy. Previously, water sports were largely categorised as “outdoor leisure” or a niche activity. Now, placed alongside athletics and swimming, it is designated as a core foundational sport for elite competition. This repositioning directly determines the priority of resource allocation.
Supporting policy measures are being rolled out in tandem. The General Administration of Sport has explicitly proposed developing 100 high-quality outdoor sports destinations, with the first batch of 49 sites already announced. For national fitness, over 5,000 new or renovated micro sports parks, small fitness centres and multi-purpose sports grounds will be built during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
At the September 3 press conference, Chen Xingnian, Director of the Mass Sports Department of the General Administration of Sport, specifically noted that venues for emerging sports including pickleball, roller sports, skateboarding and water sports will be built in light of local conditions. “These small, delightful sports spaces will become new livelihood scenes in urban and rural areas.”
This means water sports are evolving from “scenic-exclusive activities” into “everyday urban recreation”. Historically reliant on resorts and tourist attractions, water sports projects faced complicated approval procedures, heavy capital input and long construction cycles. The “small and delightful” positioning encourages community-level, embedded water sports spaces — for example, a SUP pier along a river channel, a kayak landing point beside a lake, or a neighbourhood water sports experience station. Demand will grow for compact, lightweight and easy-to-deploy equipment and venue solutions.
Future water sports venue solutions will undoubtedly drive industrial growth and product iteration. The related industrial chain is poised for vigorous development, while the prospect of explosive consumption growth also merits close attention.
Signal 2: Dapeng in Shenzhen Embeds “Electrification” into Its 2030 Roadmap
If the “633” framework sets the top-level direction, Shenzhen Dapeng’s plan translates this vision into a concrete industrial pathway.
At the end of August, the General Office of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government issued the Action Plan for Dapeng New Area to Promote Full-Scenario Application of Electric Boats and Smart Water Sports Equipment. It is one of China’s most ambitious policy documents for electric water sports equipment to date. Instead of generic wording such as “encouraging development”, it lays out quantified targets, spatial layouts and specific product categories.
The core targets are as follows: by 2030, the industrial scale of electric boat-related industries on the Dapeng Peninsula will reach 5 billion yuan, with 400 registered operational electric boats, 80,000 annual outbound voyages and 960,000 annual tourist visits. Mass consumption (≤800 yuan per visitor) shall account for no less than 85% of total revenue. In the long-term phase of 2031–2035, the industrial scale will hit 15 billion yuan, driving over 80 billion yuan in associated industries.
For spatial layout, a structure of “one core, two belts and three parks” will be established, among which the Marine Leisure Equipment Innovation Park serves as the designated industrial carrier.
Most critical is the implementation roadmap for specific product categories. The plan clearly pilots electric foil boards in the Xiyong and Guanhu areas, deploys electric submersibles at Da’ao Bay, arranges electric jet skis at Jinsha Bay, and offers electric surfboard experiences at East and West Chong. Supporting consumption models are also defined: combined tickets for “yacht + hotel” and “yacht + homestay”, inclusive consumption vouchers, plus the promotion of time-sharing rental and shared boat trips. On the event front, Dapeng will bid to host the Monaco Renewable Energy Powerboat Challenge and launch the China leg of the International Electric Foil Board Tour.
This shows that products such as electric surfboards, electric foil boards and electric submersibles, which were merely novelties at trade fairs two years ago, are now written into a district-level industrial action plan. Demand for supporting infrastructure including charging facilities, shore power systems and smart supervision platforms will be unlocked concurrently. For manufacturers and operators of electric water sports equipment, Dapeng delivers a tangible policy testbed and replicable business model. It is foreseeable that a rising number of new players making electrified waterborne equipment will emerge at next year’s and future editions of the Shanghai International Water Sports Expo.
Nevertheless, institutional barriers remain for electrification rollout. Unified inspection standards for small electric boats and crew management regulations are yet to be finalised, sea-use approval procedures need streamlining, and yacht rental pilots must be pushed forward in parallel. Supporting charging infrastructure is particularly critical, directly determining whether electric boats can operate at scale and whether the industry can accelerate. Delays in any single link will hinder on-the-ground implementation.
Beyond top-level design and industrial pathways, the institutional infrastructure at grassroots level ultimately decides how fast the industry can advance. Two local initiatives in the past two months deserve attention.
Changyang, Hubei: Grassroots Innovation of “Safety Functional Zones”
Changyang Tujia Autonomous County sits on the middle and lower reaches of the Qingjiang River, which runs 148 km through the county, featuring numerous reservoir branches and lake bays. As jet skiing, stand-up paddleboarding, dragon boat racing and other sports gain popularity, safety governance challenges have intensified, including defining water boundaries, clarifying departmental responsibilities and activity filing requirements.
Changyang introduced the Interim Measures for the Safety Administration of Water Sports and Recreational Activities, the first special administrative regulation governing water sports and recreation at county level across Hubei Province. Comprising five chapters and thirty clauses, its core innovation lies in designating “safety functional zones” for water sports and recreation, with annual assessment and dynamic adjustment. It adopts differentiated regulation for four types of activities: commercial operations, competitions, social organisation events and spontaneous public activities.
A senior official from Changyang Emergency Management Bureau put it plainly: the Measures clarify regulatory responsibilities across multiple authorities, set rules and red lines for emerging water-based business formats, and “shift water safety governance from segmented oversight to coordinated map-based management”. This model is highly replicable; other reservoir counties and inland lake regions are likely to follow suit.
Tiantai, Zhejiang: Mapping Permitted and Restricted Water Zones
The Zhejiang River and Lake Protection and Governance Regulations, enforced in March 2026, stipulate that zones for ecotourism, sports, recreation and leisure camping may be demarcated within river and lake management areas. Based on this regulation, Tiantai County has completed zoning for all waterfront activities and built a three-tier spatial governance system: protected zones, reserved zones and controlled utilisation zones. Within the “Vitality & Sports” controlled utilisation zone, waterfront fitness and water sports are prioritised, paired with positive and negative item lists to realise dual control over “space and behaviours”.
For market access, Tiantai adopts a streamlined workflow of “department acceptance, joint review, joint filing and one-stop completion”, with full implementation of the notification-and-commitment system.
This demonstrates long-standing industry pain points such as unclear water-use rights and overlapping regulatory duties are being resolved one by one at grassroots level. Changyang addresses “who governs and how”, while Tiantai defines “where activities are allowed and how to gain access”. The replicability of these two frameworks indicates that a batch of county-level water sports administrative rules will be released intensively within the next 12–18 months. Operators who secure compliance frameworks early will gain first-mover advantages.
Still, institutional breakthroughs at grassroots level do not equate to full operational success. Sustained cross-department collaboration, controllable exit and restoration costs, and the scalability of individual cases remain real challenges. A notable gap also exists between institutional frameworks and on-site safety compliance for operators.
Implications for the Water Sports Industry
Combined, these three policy signals point to several substantive shifts in industry operation.
- Electrified product categories are moving from “product showcases” to real scenario deployment. Shenzhen Dapeng has incorporated electric foil boards, electric submersibles and electric surfboards into its district-level action plan, complete with charging infrastructure and consumer scenarios. Promotion of these products can no longer rely solely on individual product specifications; integrated packages combining charging facilities, pier operation and competitions are required. Enterprises that first deliver viable “product + scenario” solutions will secure an edge in the next round of competition.
- Safety and compliance have evolved from a bonus feature into an entry ticket. Following the rollout of Changyang’s safety functional zones and tiered regulation, operators’ demand for life-saving equipment, safety leashes, rescue vessels and smart supervision platforms will shift from optional add-ons to mandatory standard equipment. Compliance capacity directly determines whether operators can obtain water-use rights and host competitions — it is no longer an extra merit, but a prerequisite to participate.
- Waterfront operators are emerging as a new demand group. If Tiantai’s “joint review, one-stop completion” model is widely promoted, more county governments will open accessible water resources, bringing demand for supporting operation plans, equipment procurement and training services. The rise of such buyers means downstream players in the industrial chain are evolving from scattered independent clubs into organised local operating entities.
- Demand for “small and delightful” scenario-based solutions remains largely unmet. The “small and delightful” sports spaces highlighted in the SCIO press conference call for compact, modular, easy-to-deploy water sports equipment and venue solutions. The industry is still dominated by traditional large-scale equipment in this segment, leaving obvious product gaps.
The policy landscape for water sports is transforming from setting general directions to defining actionable implementation paths. The “633” framework delivers national strategic positioning, Shenzhen Dapeng provides quantifiable industrial targets, and Changyang and Tiantai offer grassroots governance templates. Taken together, the three policy signals lead to one conclusion: the transition of water sports from a niche outdoor activity into a mainstream industry is moving past the question of “whether to develop it” and entering the phase of “how to develop it”.
Parallel progress is underway in Shanghai. Pudong has completed China’s first market-based public transaction for water-use rights, the Suzhou Creek Water Sports Centre is operational, and the Lingang Water Sports Centre is under construction.
The 2027 Shanghai International Water Sports Expo will run from March 28 to 30 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. It will be planned and showcased around electrification, intelligent technology and environmental sustainability. Beyond general water sports equipment, the show will expand the well-received sailing zone this year along with forums and salons. A brand-new diving zone will be jointly built in partnership with ADEX Asia Dive Expo. If you are tracking how these policies land, the exhibition floor offers a valuable observation window. Further content plans will be released in due course; stay tuned.