South China Sea Islands
South China Sea Islands South China Sea Oceanic Islands | |
---|---|
Ecology | |
Realm | Indomalayan |
Biome | Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests |
Geography | |
Area | 6 km2 (2.3 sq mi) |
Countries | |
Conservation | |
Conservation status | Critical/endangered |
Protected | 0 km2 (0%)[1] |
The South China Sea Islands consist of over 250 islands, atolls, cays, shoals, reefs and seamounts in the South China Sea. The islands are mostly low and small and have few inhabitants. The islands and surrounding seas are subject to overlapping territorial claims by the countries bordering the South China Sea.
The South China Sea Islands constitute a distinct tropical moist broadleaf forest terrestrial ecoregion and the South China Sea Oceanic Islands marine ecoregion.[2]
Geography
The islands, shoals and reefs are grouped into three archipelagos, plus the
- The Paracel Islands, disputed between the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC, a.k.a. Taiwan) and Vietnam. Occupied by the PRC following the Battle of the Paracel Islands (1974).[3]
- Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks, disputed between the PRC and the ROC, occupied by the ROC.
- The Spratly Islands, disputed between the PRC, the ROC and Vietnam (and to a lesser degree by Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei, claiming various parts of the archipelago).[4][5]
- The Zhongsha Islands
- Scarborough Shoal (with only rocks above sea level), disputed between the PRC, the ROC and the Philippines.[9]
- Truro Shoal (Sianfa Ansha or Shianfa Ansha 特魯暗沙; 16°20′N 116°44′E)
The sea floor contains Paleozoic and Mesozoic granite and metamorphic rocks. The abysses are caused by the formation of the Himalayas in the Cenozoic.
Except for one
Legend:
Brunei 1:Louisa Reef
Malaysia 1:Swallow Reef 2:Ardasier Reef 3:Dallas Reef 4:Erica Reef 5:Investigator Shoal 6:Mariveles Reef
People's Republic of China 1:Yongshu 2:Meiji 3:Zhubi 4:Huayang 5:Nanxun 6:Chigua 7:Dongmen
Philippines 1:Flat Island 2:Lankiam Cay 3:Loaita Cay 4:Loaita Island 5:Nanshan Island 6:Northeast Cay 7:Thitu Island
8:West York Island 9:Commodore Reef 10:Irving Reef 11:Second Thomas Shoal
Republic of China 1:Taiping 2:Zhongzhou
20:Collins Reef 21:Lansdowne Reef 22:Bombay Castle 23:Prince of Wales Bank 24:Vanguard Bank 25:Prince Consort Bank
26:Grainger Bank 27:Alexandra Bank 28:Orleana Shoal 29:Kingston Shoal
Climate
The Paracel islands have a tropical marine climate. Annual rainfall averages 1130 mm and is strongly seasonal. Between May and August, the southwest trade winds bring rainfall to the islands, with the maximum rainfall in June (226 mm). The northeast trade winds bring a winter dry season, and December is the lowest-rainfall month (3.3 mm).[2]
The Spratly Islands have a tropical climate. The average annual temperature is 27 °C and ranges from 30 °C between May and August to 25 °C during the winter months. Rainfall averages 1800 to 2200 mm annually. The southwest monsoon from May to November brings a five-month rainy season, and the seven-month dry season includes the March to April southeast monsoon.[2]
Flora
Many of the smaller islands are devoid of vegetation. Larger islands support terrestrial plant communities which include coral island evergreen forest, scrub forest and coastal scrub and grasses.[2]
There are 340 species of land plants and fungi recorded in the Paracel Islands, composed of 224 genera in 89 plant families. These include 312 species of
Humans have introduced other plants to the islands. The Chinese and Vietnamese introduced 47 more species, including peanut, sweet potato and various vegetables.
Fauna
There are no known native terrestrial animals on the islands.
The islands are feeding and nesting sites for large numbers of seabirds, including the
Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) inhabit waters around the islands and nest on the islands' beaches.[2]
History
From 1405 to 1433, Zheng He commanded expeditionary voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, and East Africa in Ming dynasty in China. In 1421, Zheng prepared the 6 edition Mao Kun map, usually referred to by Chinese people as Zheng He's Navigation Map (simplified Chinese: 郑和航海图; traditional Chinese: 鄭和航海圖; pinyin: Zhèng Hé hánghǎi tú), which included South China Sea Islands.
In the 19th century, as a part of the occupation of Indochina, France claimed control of the Spratlys until the 1930s, exchanging a few with the British. During World War II, the South China Sea islands were all occupied by Japan. The
Names
The South China Sea Islands were discussed from the 4th century BC in the Chinese texts
During the Qing, the names Qianli Changsha and Wanli Shitang were in vogue, and Chinese fishermen from Hainan named specific islands from within the groups, although the Qing officially named 15 large islands in 1909. During China's Republican era (1912-1949), the government named the Spratlys Tuánshā Qúndǎo (团沙群岛) and then Nánshā Qúndǎo (南沙群岛); the Paracels were Xīshā Qúndǎo (西沙群岛); Republican authorities mapped over 291 islands, reefs, and banks in surveys in 1932, 1935, and 1947. The People's Republic of China has retained the Republican-era names for the island groups, supplementing them with a list of 287 names for islands, reefs, banks, and shoals in 1983.[10] From 2011 to 2012, China's State Oceanic Administration named 1,660 nameless islands and islets under its claimed jurisdiction; in 2012, China announced plans to name a further 1,664 nameless features by August 2013. The naming campaign is intended to consolidate China's sovereignty claim over Sansha (三沙),[11] a city which includes islands from the Xisha (Paracel), Nansha (Spratly and James Shoal) and Zhongsha (中沙, Zhōngshā; Macclesfield Bank, Scarborough Shoal, and others) groups.
Resources
There are
Claims and control
The Republic of China (ROC) named 132 of the South China Sea Islands in 1932 and 1935. In 1933, the Chinese government lodged an official protest to the French government after its occupation of Taiping Island.[12] In 1947, the Ministry of Interior of China renamed 149 of the islands. Later, in November 1947, the Secretaritat of Guangdong Government of China was authorised to publish the Map of the South China Sea Islands.
The Japanese and the French renounced their claims as soon as their respective occupations or colonization had ended.
In 1958, the People's Republic of China (PRC) issued a declaration defining its territorial waters within what is known as the nine-dash line which encompassed the Spratly Islands. North Vietnam's prime minister, Phạm Văn Đồng, sent a diplomatic note to Zhou Enlai, stating that "The Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam respects this decision." The diplomatic note was written on 14 September and was publicised in Nhan Dan newspaper (Vietnam) on 22 September 1958. Regarding this letter, there have been many arguments on its true meaning and the reason why Phạm Văn Đồng decided to send it to Zhou Enlai. In an interview with BBC Vietnam, Dr. Balázs Szalontai provided the following analysis of this issue:
The general context of the Chinese declaration was the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, held in 1956, and the resulting treaties signed in 1958, such as the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone. Understandably, the PRC government, though not being a member of the U.N., also wanted to have a say in how these issues were dealt with. Hence the Chinese declaration of September 1958. In these years, as I said before, North Vietnam could hardly afford to alienate China. The Soviet Union did not give any substantial support to Vietnamese reunification, and neither South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem nor the U.S. government showed readiness to give consent to the holding of all-Vietnamese elections as stipulated by the Geneva Agreements. On the contrary, Diem did his best to suppress the Communist movement in the South. This is why Phạm Văn Đồng felt it necessary to take sides with China, whose tough attitude toward the Asian policies of the U.S. offered some hope. And yet he seems to have been cautious enough to make a statement that supported only the principle that China was entitled for 12-mile territorial seas along its territory but evaded the issue of defining this territory. While the preceding Chinese statement was very specific, enumerating all the islands (including the Paracels and the Spratlys) for which the PRC laid claim, the DRV statement did not say a word about the concrete territories to which this rule was applicable. Still, it is true that in this bilateral territorial dispute between Chinese and Vietnamese interests, the DRV standpoint, more in a diplomatic than a legal sense, was incomparably closer to that of China than to that of South Vietnam.[13][citation needed]
It was also argued that, Phạm Văn Đồng who represented North Vietnam at that time had no legal right to comment on a territorial part which belonged to the South Vietnam represented by
In addition to the People's Republic of China and Vietnam, the Republic of China (i.e. Taiwan), Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines also claim and occupy some islands. Taiwan claims all the Spratly Islands, but occupies only one island and one shelf, including Taiping Island. Malaysia occupies three islands on its continental shelf. The Philippines claim most of the Spratlys and calls them the Kalayaan Group of islands, and they form a distinct municipality in the province of Palawan. The Philippines, however, occupy only eight islands. Brunei claims a relatively small area, including islands on Louisa Reef.[21]
Indonesia's claims are not on any island, but on maritime rights. (See South China Sea)
In July 2016, in
See also
- Great wall of sand
- List of islands in the South China Sea
- List of islands of the Philippines
- List of islands of the Republic of China
- List of islands of Vietnam
- List of maritime features in the Spratly Islands
References
Citations
- PMID 28608869.) Supplemental material 2 table S1b.
{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (link - ^ a b c d e f g "South China Sea Islands". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
- ^ The World Factbook CIA World Factbook
- ^ Global Security
- ^ "An interactive look at claims on the South China Sea". The Straits Times. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
- ^ "中沙群岛:隐伏在海下的暗沙群". Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2018.
- ^ "Limits in the Seas - No. 127 Taiwan's Maritime Claims" (PDF). United States Department of State. 15 November 2005. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
- ^ "Philippines protests China's moving in on Macclesfield Bank". Inquirer.net. 6 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- ^ ROC reaffirms sovereignty over Huangyan Island
- ^ .
- ^ "China to name territorial islands". Beijing: Xinhua. 16 October 2012. Archived from the original on 8 January 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2012.
- ^ Todd C. Kelly Archived 28 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ BBC Vietnam, Về lá thư của Phạm Văn Đồng năm 1958, January 24, 2008. The English text of the interview is downloadable at https://www.academia.edu/6174115/Interview_North_Vietnam_and_Chinas_Maritime_Territorial_Claims_1958.
- ^ Thao Vi (2 June 2014). "Late Vietnam PM's letter gives no legal basis to China's island claim". Thanh Nien News.
- ^ Clinton Signals U.S. Role in China Territorial Disputes After Asean Talks Bloomberg 2010--07-23
- ^ "China Warns U.S. to Stay Out of Islands Dispute". The New York Times. 26 July 2010.
- ^ "A clash of interests in Asia". The Japan Times. 28 July 2020.
- ^ China Says Its South Sea Claims Are `Indisputable' Bloomberg 29 July 2010
- ^ "Limits in the Seas" (PDF). Office of Ocean and Polar Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
- ^ "New ten-dashed line map revealed China's ambition". 19 July 2014.
- ^ Regional strategic considerations in the Spratly Islands dispute
- ^ a b "PCA Press Release: The South China Sea Arbitration (The Republic of the Philippines v. The People's Republic of China) | PCA-CPA". pca-cpa.org. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 July 2016.
- ^ Phillips, Tom; Holmes, Oliver; Bowcott, Owen (12 July 2016). "Beijing rejects tribunal's ruling in South China Sea case". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
- ^ Zannia, Neyla (14 July 2016). "Taiwan rejects ruling on South China Sea with Taiping Island defined as 'rocks'". The Online Citizen. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
Sources
- The Dotted Line on the Chinese Map of the South China Sea: A Note
- "Vietnamese claims" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. (1.70 MB)
- The South China Sea Issue (in Chinese)
- Geopolitics of Scarborough Schoal
- Chinese islands names defined by the Republic of China (Taiwan)
External links
- "South China Sea Islands". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.