The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). The area's importance largely results from one-third of the world's shipping transiting through its waters, and that it is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves beneath its seabed.
It is located
- south of mainland China and the island of Taiwan,
- west of the Philippines,
- north west of Sabah (Malaysia), Sarawak (Malaysia) and Brunei,
- north of Indonesia,
- north east of the Malay peninsula (Malaysia) and Singapore, and
- east of Vietnam.
The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries. These claims are also reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea.
Read more about South China Sea: Names, Geography, Extent, Geology, Islands and Seamounts, Resources, Territorial Claims
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... This system began its long life on August 16 in the South China Sea, having formed within the monsoon trough ... close but remained offshore of southeastern China, and after reaching maximum sustained winds of 75 knots (139 km/h) it hit western Taiwan on August 22 ... Wayne drifted northeastward through the South China Sea, becoming a tropical storm again on August 27 ...
... competing territorial claims over the South China Sea ... Both People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) claim almost the entire body as their own, demarcating their claims within what is ... Competing claims include Indonesia, China, and Taiwan over waters NE of the Natuna Islands The Philippines, China, and Taiwan over Scarborough Shoal ...
... The critical sea lines of communication that connect China to Middle Eastern oil-producing states transverse the South China Sea, making it a key strategic region, and potential ... Chinese naval vessels heavily patrol South China Sea waters, and conflicting territorial claims in the region have periodically erupted in naval confrontations ... Chinese efforts to control the South China Sea have therefore figured significantly in speculations about the wider ambitions of the Chinese central government in the construction of a power ...
... The South China Sea shipwrecks are two shipwrecks discovered in the South China Sea ... yield important archaeological evidence about the marine Silk Road trade route linking ancient China with the Western world ... South China Sea-I was discovered in 1987 and is the marine Silk Road area ...
Famous quotes containing the words sea, south and/or china:
“The sea has neither meaning nor pity.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Returned this day, the south wind searches,
And finds young pines and budding birches;
But finds not the budding man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Anyone who tries to keep track of what is happening in China is going to end up by wearing all the skin of his left ear from twirling around on it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)