area c.3 685 000 km²/1 423 000 sq mi. W arm of the Pacific Ocean, bounded by Taiwan (N), the Philippines (E), Borneo (SE), and the SE Asian coast (NW, W, SW); subject to violent typhoons; main arms, Gulfs of Tongkin and Kompong; shallow in SE, c.60 m/200 ft; deep basin in NE, reaching 5490 m/18 012 ft; numerous island groups and coral reefs; major fishing region.
The South China Sea is a marginal sea south of China. It is the largest sea body after the five oceans. The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to several competing claims of sovereignty by neighboring nations. These competing claims are also reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea.
Geography
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the sea as stretching in a southwest to northeast direction, whose southern border is 3 degrees South latitude between South Sumatra and Kalimantan (Karimata Strait), and whose northern border is the Strait of Taiwan from the northern tip of Taiwan to the Fujian coast of mainland China. The Gulf of Thailand covers the western portion of the South China Sea.
The sea lies above a drowned continental shelf; during recent ice ages global sea level was hundreds of meters lower, and Borneo was part of the Asian mainland.
States and territories with borders on the sea (clockwise from north) include: the mainland China, Macao, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Major rivers that flow into the South China Sea include the Pearl, Min, Jiulong, Red, Mekong, Rajang, Pahang, and Pasig Rivers.
Islands and seamounts
Within the sea, there are over 200 identified islands and reefs, most of them within the Spratly Islands. The Spratly Islands spread over an 810 by 900 km area covering some 175 identified insular features, the largest being Taiping Island (Itu Aba) at just over 1.3 km long and with its highest elevation at 3.8 metres.
There is a 100-km wide seamount called Reed Tablemount in NE Spratlys, separated from Palawan Island of the Philippines by the Palawan Trench. Now about 20m under the sea level it was an island until it sunk about 7,000 years ago due to the increasing sea level after the last ice age. It is the second most used sea lane in the world, while in terms of world annual merchant fleet tonnage, over 50% passes through the Straits of Malacca, the Sunda Strait, and the Lombok Strait.
Territorial claims
Competing territorial claims over the South China Sea and its resources are numerous. Because the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea allows for a country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to extend 200 nm (370.6 km) beyond territorial waters, all the nations surrounding the sea can lay claim to great portions of it. Recent reports indicate the PRC is building an aircraft carrier battle group to secure energy lines in the South China Sea.
ASEAN in general, and Malaysia in particular, has been keen to ensure that the territorial disputes within the South China Sea do not escalate into armed conflict.
Names for the sea
South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and the name in most European languages is equivalent, but it is sometimes called by different names in neighboring countries, often reflecting historical claims to hegemony over the sea.
The English name is a result of early European interest in the sea as a route from Europe and South Asia to the trading opportunities of China. In the sixteenth century Portuguese sailors called it the China Sea (Mare da China); later needs to differentiate it from nearby bodies of water lead to calling it the South China Sea.
In China, the traditional name for the sea is Southern Sea (南海; In contemporary Chinese publications, it is commonly called South China Sea (南中國海, Nán Zhōnggúo Hǎi), and this name is often used in English-language maps published by China. In Southeast Asia, it was once called the Champa Sea or Sea of Cham, after the Malayo-Polynesian maritime kingdom that flourished before the sixteenth century. Law of the sea in East Asia: issues and prospects.
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