IoT–Enabled Shipping and the Dilemmas of Tort Liability: Challenges and Solutions in Chinese Law

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming maritime transport by enabling sensors, equipment and digital systems to generate and exchange operational and cargo-related data. IoT does not, however, necessarily transfer operational control ashore. Remote and autonomous functions create additional liability problems only where they form part of the vessel’s actual operational architecture. This article examines these problems under Chinese law following the 2025 revision of the Maritime Code of the People’s Republic of China, effective from 1 May 2026. It combines doctrinal analysis with Chinese maritime case analysis and a comparison of regulatory approaches in the United Kingdom, Norway and South Korea. The article argues that Chinese law already provides the principal rules needed to determine the basis of liability, causation, maritime status and limitation of liability in IoT-related disputes. Existing maritime cases also show that these doctrines can accommodate many disputes in which digital systems form part of the facts. The main gaps lie instead in the regulation of remote operational roles and in the creation, preservation and production of technical records needed to reconstruct an accident. Drawing on comparative experience, the article proposes clearer rules for remote command and responsibility, system-specific data retention and technical review, and a limited evidentiary presumption where material records are unjustifiably withheld or lost. These measures supplement rather than replace existing Chinese liability rules.