Administration Office For Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Nansha Islands

Administration Office For Xisha Islands, Zhongsha Islands And Nansha Islands

Sansha is a prefecture of the People's Republic of China's Hainan province which administers (actually or nominally) several island groups and undersea atolls in the South China Sea, comprising the Spratly and Paracel Islands as well as the Macclesfield Bank. The entire territory is disputed, and China's de facto control over the area varies. Sansha has equal administrative status to a prefecture-level city, and was created on 24 July 2012.

The establishment of Sansha is simply an upgrade of the administrative status of these island groups from the previous county-level Administrative Office, and construction of a city is not actually underway. A garrison may be established, however. The US State Department called the change in the administrative status of the territory "unilateral", and the move has received criticism from two nations engaged in the South China Sea dispute, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The centre of government for Sansha is located on Yongxing (Woody) Island in the Paracels, where some 600 Chinese civilians reside. Woody Island is the largest of the islands in the Paracel and Spratly groups with an area of about 5 square miles (13 km2). Nationally, Sansha is the smallest prefecture-level city by both population and land area but the largest by water area and the southernmost.