Abstract: As an effective management and control means of coastal zone development and construction activities, coastal construction setback line has been widely used in the world. Some coastal provinces and cities in China have also carried out different methods of setback line delimitation and regulations exploration. The outline of China’s 14th Five-year Plan clearly puts forward to "explore the regulations of coastal construction setback line". The implementation progress, determination methods and initial baseline of coastal construction setback line in foreign countries, and the research and practice basis of China's coastal construction setback line were summarized. The main problems faced by the delimitation of coastal construction setback line in China were non-uniform delimitation standards, poor operability of control measures, lack of upper legal support for the delimitation of coastal construction setback line, and the inconsistency between scientific accuracy and management simplicity. The recommendations, such as standardizing the delimitation methods of coastal construction setback line, enforcing legislation and management regulations first, comprehensively determining alternative schemes, and carrying out pilot research, were put forward in order to provide technical support for coastal provinces and cities to comprehensively carry out the delimitation and management of coastal construction setback line.