South China Sea


The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Philippines, and in the south by Borneo, eastern Sumatra, and the Bangka Belitung Islands, encompassing an area of around. It communicates with the East China Sea via the Taiwan Strait, the Philippine Sea via the Luzon Strait, the Sulu Sea via the straits around Palawan, the Java Sea via the Karimata and Bangka Straits, and directly with the Gulf of Thailand. Additionally, the Gulf of Tonkin is part of the South China Sea.
$3.4 trillion of the world's $16 trillion maritime shipping passed through the South China Sea in 2016. Oil and natural gas reserves have been found in the area. The Western Central Pacific accounted for 14% of the world's commercial fishing in 2010.
The South China Sea Islands, collectively comprising several archipelago clusters of mostly small uninhabited islands, islets, reefs/atolls, and seamounts numbering in the hundreds, 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.

Etymology

South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and the name is equivalent in almost all European languages. This 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 16th century, Portuguese sailors referred to it as the China Sea ; later, the need to differentiate it from nearby bodies of water led to its renaming to the South China Sea. The International Hydrographic Organization refers to the sea as "South China Sea ".
The Yi Zhou Shu, which was a chronicle of the Western Zhou dynasty, gives the first Chinese name for the South China Sea as Nanfang Hai, claiming that barbarians from that sea gave tributes of hawksbill sea turtles to the Zhou rulers. The Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, and Guoyu classics of the Spring and Autumn period also referred to the sea, but by the name Nan Hai in reference to the State of Chu's expeditions there. Nan Hai, the South Sea, was one of the Four Seas of Chinese literature. There are three other seas, one for each of the four cardinal directions. During the Eastern Han dynasty, China's rulers called the sea Zhang Hai. Fei Hai became popular during the Southern and Northern dynasties. Usage of the current Chinese name, Nan Hai, gradually became widespread during the Qing dynasty.
In Southeast Asia, it was once called the Champa Sea or Sea of Cham, after the maritime kingdom of Champa, which flourished there before the 16th century. The majority of the sea came under Japanese naval control during World War II, following the military acquisition of many surrounding South East Asian territories in 1941. Japan calls the sea Minami Shina "South China Sea". This was written 南支那海 until 2004, when the Japanese Foreign Ministry and other departments switched the spelling to 南シナ海, which has become the standard usage in Japan.
In China, it is referred to as the South Sea,, and in Vietnam the East Sea, Biển Đông. In Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, it was long known as the South China Sea, with the part within Philippine territorial waters often called the "Luzon Sea", Dagat Luzon, by the Philippines.
However, following an escalation of the Spratly Islands dispute in 2011, various Philippine government agencies started using the name West Philippine Sea. A Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration spokesperson stated that the sea to the east of the Philippines will continue to be called the Philippine Sea. In September 2012, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed Administrative Order No. 29, mandating that all government agencies use the name West Philippine Sea to refer to the parts of South China Sea within the Philippines exclusive economic zone, including the Luzon Sea as well as the waters around, within and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc, and tasked the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to use the name in official maps.
In July 2017, to assert its sovereignty, Indonesia renamed the northern reaches of its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea as the North Natuna Sea, which is located north of the Indonesian Natuna Islands, and borders the southern Vietnam exclusive economic zone, corresponding to the southern end of the South China Sea. The Natuna Sea is located south of Natuna Island within Indonesian territorial waters. Therefore, Indonesia has named two seas that are portions of the South China Sea: the Natuna Sea, located between the Natuna Islands and the Lingga and Tambelan Archipelagos, and the North Natuna Sea, located between the Natuna Islands and Cape Cà Mau on the southern tip of the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. There has been no agreement between China and Indonesia regarding the so-called the Natuna waters dispute, with China remaining ambiguous about the southern limit of its area of interest.

Hydrography

States and territories with borders on the sea include: the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Major rivers that flow into the South China Sea include the Pearl, Min, Jiulong, Red, Mekong, Menam, Rajang, Baram, Kapuas, Batang Hari, Musi, Kampar, Indragiri, Pahang, Agno, Pampanga, and Pasig Rivers.
The IHO in its Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition, defines the limits of the South China Sea as follows:

On the South. The Eastern and Southern limits of Singapore and Malacca Straits as far West as Tanjong Kedabu down the East coast of Sumatra to Lucipara Point thence to Tanjong Nanka, the Southwest extremity of Banka Island, through this island to Tanjong Berikat the Eastern point, on to Tanjong Djemang in Billiton, along the North coast of this island to Tanjong Boeroeng Mandi and thence a line to Tanjong Sambar the Southwest extreme of Borneo.

On the East. From Tanjong Sambar through the West coast of Borneo to Tanjong Sampanmangio, the North point, thence a line to West points of Balabac and Secam Reefs, on to the West point of Bancalan Island and to Cape Buliluyan, the Southwest point of Palawan, through this island to Cabuli Point, the Northern point thereof, thence to the Northwest point of Busuanga and to Cape Calavite in the island of Mindoro, to the Northwest point of Lubang Island and to Point Fuego in Luzon Island, through this island to Cape Engano, the Northeast point of Luzon, along a line joining this cape with the East point of Balintang Island and to the East point of Y'Ami Island thence to Garan Bi, the Southern point of Taiwan, through this island to Santyo its North Eastern Point.


On the North. From Fuki Kaku, the northern point of Formosa, to Kiushan Tao, on to the southern point of Haitan Tao and thence westward on the parallel of 25°24' North to the coast of Fukien.


On the West. The Mainland, the Southern limit of the Gulf of Thailand, and the East coast of the Malay Peninsula.



However, in a revised draft edition of Limits of Oceans and Seas, 4th edition, the International Hydrographic Organization recognized the Natuna Sea. Thus, the southern limit of the South China Sea would be revised from the Bangka Belitung Islands to the Natuna Islands.
The South China Sea has an average depth of, and the deepest recorded point is either or.

Geology

The sea lies above a drowned continental shelf; during recent ice ages, global sea level was hundreds of metres lower, and Borneo was part of the Asian mainland.
The South China Sea opened around 45 million years ago when the "Dangerous Ground" rifted away from southern China. Extension culminated in seafloor spreading around 30 million years ago, a process that propagated to the southwest, resulting in the V-shaped basin we see today. Extension ceased around 17 million years ago.
Arguments have continued about the role of tectonic extrusion in forming the basin. Paul Tapponnier and colleagues have argued that as India collides with Asia, it pushes Indochina to the southeast. The relative shear between Indochina and China caused the South China Sea to open. This view is disputed by geologists who do not consider Indochina to have moved far relative to mainland Asia. Marine geophysical studies in the Gulf of Tonkin by Peter Clift have shown that the Red River Fault was active and causing basin formation at least by 37 million years ago in the northwest South China Sea, consistent with extrusion playing a part in the formation of the sea. Since opening, the South China Sea has been the repository of large sediment volumes delivered by the Mekong River, Red River, and Pearl River. Several of these deltas are rich in oil and gas deposits.

Islands and seamounts

The South China Sea contains over 250 small islands, atolls, cays, shoals, reefs, and sandbars, most of which have no indigenous people, many of which are naturally underwater at high tide, and some of which are permanently submerged. The features are:
The Spratly Islands span an area of approximately 810 by 900 km, covering around 175 identified insular features, the largest being Taiping Island at just over long and with its highest elevation at.
The largest singular feature in the area of the Spratly Islands is a wide seamount called Reed Tablemount, also known as Reed Bank, in the northeast of the group, separated from Palawan Island of the Philippines by the Palawan Trench. Now completely submerged, with a depth of, it was an island until it was covered approximately 7,000 years ago by increasing sea levels after the last ice age. With an area of, it is one of the largest submerged atoll structures in the world.