Overcoming the low fabricating efficiency of traditional chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) for Gallium nitride (GaN) is a challenge owing to its high hardness, high brittleness, and chemical inertness. Here, electrochemical etching is proposed to increase the material removal rate and acquire a high-quality surface on GaN wafers. To reveal the synergistic etching mechanism of oxidizing agent and corrosion inhibitor on the GaN wafers, electrochemical etching experiments were carried out. The optimal etching solution contained 4 wt% H ₂ O ₂ and 10 mmol l ⁻¹ purified terephthalic acid. Experiments with various polishing parameters were comparatively investigated to verify the auxiliary effect of etching and determine the ideal parameters. Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy shows that the electrochemical etching removes the SSDs completely and the CMP process with befitting parameters does not induce supernumerary SSDs.