Abstract: Because of the high complexity and uncertainty of the responses and compound risks of global change in the coastal China areas, it is imperative for further research. This paper conducts a review of recent literatures concerning the responses, mechanisms and risks of the coastal zone and seas in China to the global change. Results show that since the 1960s, under global warming, the coastal China area has experienced a significant warming trend and the increase range and rate of surface temperatures in the coastal China zone and seas are higher than the global mean. The phenological changes of biotic and abiotic have significantly changed. The warm period (spring and autumn) of the year has been elongated, particularly in the East China Sea (Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea). The geographical distribution of marine species, biological seasonal succession, biocommunity structure and function have undergone great changes. Marine ecological disasters such as red tide and green tide are frequent, e.g. red tide has an interdecadal increase, and coral bleaching in tropical sea is exacerbated. The analysis also shows that since the 1980s, more and more high temperature and heat waves have appeared in the coastal China seas. The coastal sea level has continued to rise and reached new heights. The recordbreaking extreme high sea temperature events, super typhoonstorm surges and extreme sea levels have occurred frequently, so that the climate exposure of coastal socialecological systems increase. Meanwhile, human activities, such as eutrophication, largescale reclamation, destructive fishing and overfishing in coastal waters have aggravated the climate vulnerability of socialecological system. The floods in coastal areas are serious and the habitat and biodiversity of coastal wetlands are reduced. It is very likely that the coastal China areas, especially the East China Sea, become one of the greatest warming area in the world. It is suggested that the disaster risk of the coastal China areas tends to be more complex and change in the future. To this end, this paper points out that a number of scientific issues and key technologies of risk assessment to global change need urgently studied in the coastal China areas.