[9]: 68 China Ocean Shipping Company, or COSCO in short, was founded in 1961 as a Chinese government agency.

Guanghua made its maiden voyage to Jakarta for the People's Republic of China in April 1961.

The agreement opens the commercial sea routes between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

[11] In the same year, COSCO became the Chinese side representative to collaborate with International Telephone and Telegraph on repairing the communication facilities in the coastal cities of China.

[12] In 1981, COSCO won a contract from the Pakistani Government owned National Tanker Company of Pakistan, for crude oil transport.

[13] In 1991 COSCO was asked by the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to submit information regarding Chinese Government restricting U.S.-flag carriers on doing business in China.

[14] FMC also investigated COSCO for its pricing behavior in 1997, but stated there was not enough evidence to launch a formal probe on alleged under-pricing its service to eliminate competitor.

US government alleged that the ship carried material exported to Iran, which could be used to make chemical weapons.

COSCO claimed that the ship only contained "paper goods, hardware and machine parts".

[17]: 69  The United States unilaterally disabled the Yinhe's civilian GPS, causing it lose direction and anchor on the high seas for twenty-four days until it agreed to inspection.

[17]: 69–70  The inspection, which occurred in Saudi Arabia did not find any improper chemicals[20] and on September 4, representatives of the Chinese, Saudi and United States governments jointly signed a certification that the ship's cargo did not contain materials related to chemical weapons.

[25] Hong Kong was a British colony until June 30, 1997, and has been a special administrative region of China with a separate jurisdiction system since July 1.

[22][non-primary source needed] In 1997, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, United States senators from California, had asked the Clinton administration to investigate COSCO's leasing on a former naval base in Long Beach.

[37] After the post-2008 financial crisis collapse of global shipping, COSCO began gradually acquiring the Greek port of Piraeus.

[42] COSCO contains several listed companies and has more than 300[citation needed] subsidiaries locally and abroad, providing services in freight forwarding, ship building, ship repair, terminal operation, container manufacturing, trade, financing, real estate, and information technology.

On 31 July 2009, the Panama-flagged bulk carrier, Full City, operated by COSCO Group's HK division,[54] experienced engine failure and ran aground near Langesund, Telemark, Norway, during a storm, spilling 200 tons of heavy bunker fuel oil in an ecologically and environmentally sensitive wildlife area.