Cold seep systems are widely developed in the continental margins. Among them, the northern South China Sea has become a natural laboratory for the study of cold seep because of its unique geological conditions. In cold seep systems, the existence of anaerobic oxidation of methane greatly promotes the formation of authigenic minerals such as carbonates. Authigenic carbonates inherit the geochemical characteristics of cold seep environment, so they are considered as good proxies for recording the activity of cold seep. In recent years, scientists have done a lot of research on cold- seep carbonates in the north of the South China Sea, and a series of achievements have been made. However, the overall understanding of the latest research results and the future research direction of the carbonates in the northern South China Sea are still lacking in the absence of a corresponding summary analysis. Therefore, this paper reviews the related research results of cold- seep carbonates in the northern South China Sea. At present, most scientists mainly focus on the diagenetic process of cold- seep carbonates and its environmental influence, including fluid source, redox environment, element cycle, etc, but the influence of cold seep activity on global warming and carbon cycle is less discussed. At the same time, most studies are based on a single period of cold seep activity, and there are few reports about the cold seep activity in geological history. Therefore, to address these issues, we need to conduct ocean drilling in suitable areas in the northern part of the South China Sea to reconstruct cold seep activity in geological history and to explore its impact on global warming and the carbon cycle. In addition, based on previous work, we believe that the cold seep area in the Qiongdongnan area and the Dongsha area is the ideal area for the future study of cold seep activity in geological history.