South China Sea
From CrisisWiki
The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore Strait and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 km². Depending on measurement, it is the largest or second largest body of water after the five oceans.
It is located
- south of mainland China and the island of Taiwan,
- west of the Philippines,
- north west of Sabah (Malaysia), Sarawak (Malaysia) and Brunei,
- north of Indonesia,
- north east of the Malay peninsula (Malaysia) and Singapore, and
- east of Vietnam.
The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands 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.
