Abstract: The chum salmon populations in China have declined rapidly in recent years,but the genetic variation of chum salmon populations has not been evaluated to manage and restore their populations.In this study we examined 12 microsatellite loci to characterize the level of differentiation and to assess the genetic structure among chum salmon populations across 3 different rivers(Wusuli River,Heilongjiang River and Suifen River)in China.Genetic heterozygosity and genetic variation per population were calculated and showed that mean genetic heterozygosity of three different populations were 0.6732,0 5995,0.6917 respectively,and genetic variation were 0.7082,0.6511and 0.7616 respectively.Average genetic variation proportion of inter-population subdivisions among chum salmon was 3.66%.The results of this study showed that the recent decline in chum salmon has not lead to low levels of genetic variability,and supported that the genetic variation of chum salmon in China was still abundant which is helpful to restore the chum salmon resource.The results also explained it’s not genetic background that led the chum salmon resource to keeping in a poor state now,but over-harvest and water pollution and so on. Artificial propagation has played an important part in keeping the chum salmon resource, but nowadays little population number is apt to leading to genetic bottleneck worthy of consideration for us.