China is striving to improve its ability to handle oil spills at sea and has established a fund to compensate the victims of such incidents, the Ministry of Transport said on Tuesday.

"Given that the number of construction projects at sea is rising annually, and that our country has become more reliant on oil and chemical products transported via ships, we're facing a great risk of spills," Li Shixin, deputy director of the ministry's Maritime Safety Administration, said at a news conference in Beijing.

"In response, the central government has decided to build more than 30 oil spill response stores by the end of 2016."