Under the influence of global change,the sea-level rise has become a major global issue which is widely concerned by the international society. To study the modern sea level change, it is essential to understand the history of past sea level fluctuations. In addition to short-term device-measured sea-level records, the study of history of sea level change is mainly dependent on a variety of proxy indicators. Amongst sea-level changes proxy indicators on coral reefs, microatolls are the most precise, geologically steadfast, and easy to use. Microatolls are hermatypic corals that grow on coral reef flats in ring-like or ribbon-like shapes. With the effect of sea level fluctuation, it usually dies on the top and lives around edges. As the highest level of survival is strictly constrained by the sea level, the microatoll is able to indicate sea level changes in centimeter degree. By using correlation between microatolls and sea level, domestic and foreign scientists have developed a series of researches on high-resolution sea level change,mainly in the following areas : 1) in stable tectonic areas,the ring-like growth band records the annual sea level fluctuations, conducive to rebuilding the history of sea level changes in the recent century, or rebuilding the multi-decadal sea level changes in different Holocene periods ; 2) in active tectonic areas,microatolls,as the high accurate indicator in sea level,can finely indicate the relative changes of sea level ; hence, it can be applied in recording the surficial uplift or subsidence by earthquakes, and furthermore restoring the time and intensity of ancient earthquakes to better understand on the triggering mechanism of the earthquake ; 3) in the equatorial Pacific area, the skeletons of microatolls can also record the influences of ENSO on sea level. By studying the high-resolution sea-level changes from Porites microatolls,it will be conducive to extending the time sequence of device-measured sea-level records, revealing the patterns of sea-level fluctuations, and predicting the long-term trend of sea-level fluctuations under climate change. Microatolls have widely developed in the South China Sea. However, so far, only a small number of researchers have ever done such studies on the sea-level recording function of microatolls in China yet. If more research works are carried out,microatolls will serve as a valuable material for rebuilding the high-resolution sea level change history of the South China Sea.