The widespread tea plantations in China provide significant economic value and sequester atmospheric CO2. However, the removal contribution of carbon sequestration to carbon emissions (CEs) in tea plantations remains unclear. Using the data of tea plantation areas and tea production of 16 provinces during 1978–2020, this study quantified the amount of carbon sequestration by vegetation and soil, and CE from fertilization, pesticide, diesel, energy and soil in tea plantations in China, and compared their removal contributions. The results showed that the continuous changes of carbon sequestration and CE in tea plantation, the amount of carbon sequestration in tea plantation increased from 1.73 –18.83 Tg C·yr−1 from 1978 to 2020, with the average carbon sequestration capacity of 6.63 Mg C·ha−1. The annual CE increased continuously from 3.52–10.54 Tg C·yr−1, with an average CE of 5.10 Mg C·ha−1. Therefore, the annual residual quantities after carbon removal increased from −1.99–8.29 Tg C·yr−1 between 1978 and 2020, and the annual residual proportions increased from −115.12% in 1978 to 44.03% in 2020. The carbon removal contribution of tea plantations in China was drastically promoted and varied significantly among the 16 provinces, the ecological management practices of tea plantations in Shandong and Guizhou provinces should be improved to promote their carbon removal contributions.

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