Abstract: For a long time, China has been actively cooperating with International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN), hoping to learn international experience to promote the development and improvement of Chinese protected area system. In 1982, IUCN began to record the data of Chinese protected areas, however, the number of data on Chinese protected areas published regularly has increased sharply and IUCN Protected Area Management Categories has changed abnormally. In order to optimize the decision-making process of the category system, improve the objectivity and accuracy of on the data of Chinese protected areas, and promote the communication and cooperation between China and global protected areas, this paper combs and sorts out the policy development of IUCN Protected Area Management Categories and the data changes of Chinese protected areas, analyzes the causes of abnormal data in Chinese protected areas, and puts forward 3 suggestion:local professional specialists take in charge of data reporting by implementing the classification decision-making process in the guidance; establish an effective and long-term communication and feedback mechanism with WDPA; establish a classification system of protected areas with Chinese characteristics and carry out the integration and optimization of protected areas. The establishment of the classification system of protected areas with Chinese characteristics and relevant measures will play a positive role in improving the classification management system of protected areas in the world.