The Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) plays a crucial role in global aquaculture, contributing significantly to farmed shrimp production, with China being a major contributor. In the last two decades, China's production of farmed L. vannamei experienced substantial growth due to expanded aquaculture areas and intensification. These processes can lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. However, the magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions from L. vannamei aquaculture systems remains unclear. Therefore, in this study, we systematically quantified greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) emissions in L. vannamei farming systems with different levels of intensification. Various emission sources were assessed, including infrastructure, energy use, feed production, and pond aquatic emissions. The estimates indicate that greenhouse gas emissions increased from 6159.35 ± 475.24 kg CO2e/t of L. vannamei in semi-intensive systems to 24,059.81 ± 3846.31 kg CO2e/t of L. vannamei in super-intensive systems. The increase in greenhouse gas emissions was primarily due to energy use (2395% increase) and infrastructure (15,939% increase). As a result, the greenhouse gas emissions from China's shrimp farming industry increased three-fold (from 5633.37 ± 177.40 to 19,730.68 ± 635.52 million kg CO2e) from 2003 to 2022, mainly contributed by coastal provinces. As the demand for high-quality aquatic products continues to increase, coupled with the urgent necessity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there is a crucial requirement to lower the emissions associated with each unit of L. vannamei production. The results of this study suggest that reducing fossil fuel use, improving feed efficiency, promoting biofloc technology, and integrated multi-trophic aquaculture systems may help to build climate-resilient sustainable aquaculture.