South China Sea
| South China Sea | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Map of the South China Sea | |||
| Area | 3.5 million km 2 | ||
| Type | Marginal sea | ||
| Location | Pacific Ocean | ||
| Contact | 15 North 115 East / 15, 115 | ||
| Coastal state (s) |  Brunei  Cambodia  China  Indonesia  Malaysia  Philippines  Singapore  Taiwan  Thailand  Viet Nam | ||
Geolocation on the map: Pacific Ocean
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change  | |||
The South China Sea (Chinese: Nan Hai/or literally "South Sea") is a marginal sea as part of the Pacific Ocean covering an area of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers between Singapore and the Strait of Taiwan. There are hundreds of tiny islands , grouped into archipelagos.
The South China Sea and its islands are subject to claims of sovereignty by neighboring nations competing. This competition is reflected by the diversity of names used for the islands and the sea itself.
Summary |
Geography
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the South China Sea as extending in a southwesterly direction - north-east. Its southern boundary is 3 degrees south latitude, between South Sumatra and Kalimantan (the Karimata Strait ). Its northern boundary is the Taiwan Strait, the northern tip of the island of Taiwan Province to the coast of China 's Fujian. The Gulf of Thailand borders the South China Sea to the west.
The sea extends over a continental shelf. At the time of the last glaciation , sea level worldwide was lowest tens of meters, and the island of Borneo was connected to mainland Asia.
States and territories bordering the South China Sea are (from the north in the direction of clockwise): the People's Republic of China , Macao , Hong Kong , Taiwan , the Philippines , the Malaysia , Brunei , the Indonesia , Singapore , the Thailand , the Cambodia and Vietnam.
The main rivers flowing into the sea: the Pearl River , the Min and Jiulong China, the Red River in Vietnam, the Mekong River , the Rajang in the Malaysian state of Pahang , and Pasig Philippines.
Islands
There are over 200 identified islands and reefs in the sea, of which 104 belong to the Spratly Islands , an archipelago whose EEZ covers 729,000 sq km. The largest of these islands is the Taiping Island and Itu Aba , being 1.5 km long and with an average height of 3.8 m.
History
Excavations in the early 2000s on the site of Oc-Eo in southern Vietnam can learn about a culture that, at least the third century AD, spread over Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand today. This culture had relations with China. The Indian influence on this culture is evident, with statues of Buddha and Vishnu. Foreign vessels were to Oc-Eo trade goods.
Denys Lombard , specialist in East Asia and the South East Asia , saw in the South China Sea a "Mediterranean Far East," place of trade and cultural exchanges between its shores Chinese, Indochinese and Insulindian.
Geopolitics
Two of these archipelagos, the islands Paracel and Spratly Islands are the subject of a territorial dispute in South China Sea between the riparian China , Taiwan , Philippines , Malaysia , Brunei , the Indonesia and Viet Nam , the both for reasons of nationalism , economic (low deposits of oil and gas find them) and strategic (they are on a busy shipping lane).
Notes
Related articles
Bibliography
- Aubin, J., Denys Lombard, Merchants and Asian businessmen in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, XIII-XX centuries, EHESS, 1988
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