The southernmost China Sea Chinese (: Nan Hai 南海/南洋, is literally: “South Sea”) is a bordering Mer belonging to the Pacific Ocean covering a surface of approximately 3.500.000 km ² between Singapore and the strait of Taiwan. There exist hundreds of tiny islands, gathered in archipelagoes.

The China Sea of the South and these small islands are the object of claims of concurrent Souveraineté by the nations bordering. This competition results in the diversity of the names utlilized for the small islands and the sea itself.

Geography

The international hydrographic Organization defines the southernmost China Sea like extending according to a south-western direction - the North-East. Its southern limit is with 3° of southern latitude, between the south of Sumatra and Kalimantan (the strait of Karimata). Its northern limit is the strait of Taiwan, of the northern point of the island of Taiwan to the littoral of the Chinese province of the Fujian. The Golfe of Thailand borders the China Sea of the South in the west.

The sea extends to the top from a continental shelf. At the time of the last Glaciation S, the sea level in the world was lower of several hundred meters, and the island of Borneo was attached to the Asian continent .

The States and territories which border the China Sea of the South are (on the basis of north, in the direction of the needles of a watch): the Popular republic of China, Macao, HongKong, Taiwan, Filipino , the Malaysia, Brunei, the Indonesia, Singapore, the Thailand, the Kampuchea and the Vietnam.

The principal rivers which are thrown in this sea are: the river of the Pearls, Min and Jiulong in China, the Red River in Vietnam, the Mekong, Rajang in the Malaysian State of Pahang and Pasig in Philippines.

Islands

There is more than 200 islands and reefs identified in this sea, of which 104 belong to the islands Spratley, archipelago whose ZEE covers 729.000 km ². Largest of these islands is the island Taiping or Itu Aba, making 1,5 km length and having an average height of 3,8 Mr.

History

Excavations undertaken with the beginning of the year 2000 on the site of Oc-Eo in the south of the Vietnam make it possible to better know a culture which, at least to the 3rd century after J. - C., extended on current Vietnam, Kampuchea and Thailand. This culture maintained the relations with the China. The Indian influence on this culture is manifest, with statues of Bouddha and Vishnu. Foreign boats came in Oc-Eo to exchange goods.

Denys Lombard, specialist in the East Asia and the Southeast Asia, saw in the southernmost China Sea a " The Mediterranean of Extreme-Orient" , place of commercial exchanges and cultural between its various banks, Chinese, Indochinese and insulindienne.

Geopolitics

Two of these archipelagoes, the islands Paracel and the islands Spratley are the subject of a territorial Conflit at sea of southernmost China between the residents: China, Taiwan, Filipino, Malaysia, Brunei, the Indonesia, and Vietnam, at the same time for nationalist reasons , economic (of the weak layers of Oil and gas would be there) and strategic (they are on a attended sea route).

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