It was founded in 2013 and is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China and the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center.

The agency operates the regional tsunami warning system, which provides supervision and timely warnings to Chinese coastal areas and countries surrounding the South China Sea, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

These areas are mostly located in the Ring of Fire, and tsunamis—which frequently accompany large earthquakes—represent potential threats to China's coastline.

In the early 1970s, the Intelligence Agency of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) had researched tsunami and earthquake history.

Only one in four earthquakes occurring in the Pacific Ocean meet these criteria, which can explain the low frequency of the earthquake-generated tsunamis in the Bohai Sea.

[7][8] In the 24th Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Pacific Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in 2011, the SOA proposed that countries near the South China Sea should cooperate to establish the South China Sea Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System.

[11] On 8 February 2018, the SCSTAC announced its official trial run in offering service, becoming the first 24-hour international warning center in the SOA.

It mainly services countries including China, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Moreover, it should provide emergency solutions for marine disasters, as well as consultation for the Ministry of the State council, relevant army departments, and large central enterprises.