30 South China Sea

The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of 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 3,500,000 km2 (1,400,000 sq mi). 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 Strait of Singapore, and the Java Sea via the Karimata and Bangka Strait. The Gulf of Tonkin is both part of the South China Sea, and its shallow waters south of the Riau Islands is also known as the Natuna Sea.

The barbelthroat carpetshark is a carpetshark of the family Parascylliidae found in the South China Sea between Luzon in the Philippines and China, between latitudes 23°N and 10°N, at depths between 180 and 190 m. Its length is up to 34 cm.

The broadmouth catshark is a rare catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae, the holotype and only specimen of which was taken from off Zhujiang in the South China Sea, at a depth of 913 m. Its length is around 38 cm. The broadmouth catshark's reproduction is oviparous. Considering the species is not well known, the threats are not known either but may be deepwater fisheries.

The humpback cat shark is a cat shark of the family Scyliorhinidae in the order Carcharhiniformes, found in the northwest Pacific Ocean off Zhujiang, South China Sea, from the surface to 915 m. Its length is 39–41 cm. The largest specimen examined by Nakaya and Sato was 54.2 cm TL. The humpback catshark is a little-known oviparous deepwater catshark.

The smalldorsal cat shark is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae found in the South China Sea, at depths to 915 m. It can grow up to 37 cm. A. micropterygeus is unique among its species in having a narrow and sharply pointed first dorsal fin. However, Nakaya and Sato (2000) recommended that the status of the species be reviewed once additional specimens are available, citing the possibility that the dorsal fin of the holotype may have been malformed. The reproduction of the smalldorsal catshark is oviparous.

The spotless catshark is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae found in the South China Sea, at depths between 535 and 1,020 m on the continental slope. Its length is up to 71 centimetres (28 in).

Dangerous Ground is a large area in the southeast part of the South China Sea characterized by many low islands and cays, sunken reefs, and atolls awash, with reefs often rising abruptly from ocean depths greater than 1000m.

Dongsha Airport is located on Pratas Island (Tungsha/Dongsha) in Cijin District of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The airport is mainly used for military purposes with regular weekday C-130 transport plane flights chartered by the Republic of China Air Force. It is not open to the general public. Uni Air offers flights from Kaohsiung once per week each Thursday, however the service is only available for Coast Guard Administration staff.

Dragon Hole, also known as Yongle Blue Hole named after the third Ming emperor, is the deepest known blue hole in the world at 300.89 metres (987.2 ft) deep. It is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Discovery Reef in the Paracel Islands. Blue holes generate a distinctive blue colour when seen from above. They are characteristically only dozens of metres deep.

"Great Wall of Sand" is a name first used in March 2015 by US Admiral Harry Harris, who was commander of the Pacific Fleet, to describe a series of uniquely large-scale land reclamation projects by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the Spratly Islands area of the South China Sea in the period from late 2013 to late 2016.

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People's Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

The banded houndshark is a species of houndshark in the family Triakidae, common in the northwestern Pacific Ocean from the southern Russian Far East to Taiwan. Found on or near the bottom, it favors shallow coastal habitats with sandy or vegetated bottoms, and also enters brackish water. This shark reaches 1.5 m (4.9 ft) in length. It has a short, rounded snout and mostly narrow fins; the pectoral fins are broad and triangular, and the trailing margin of the first dorsal fin is almost vertical. It is gray above and lighter below; younger sharks have darker saddles and dots, which fade with age.

"Iisang Dagat" is a song produced by the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines. Officially, the song was made as a tribute to Chinese and Filipino front-liners working amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines as well as to commemorate Chinese–Philippine relations.

Macau, also spelled Macao and officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, is a city and special administrative region of the People's Republic of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a population of about 650,000 and an area of 32.9 km2 (12.7 sq mi), it is the most densely populated region in the world.

The Japanese Spanish mackerel, also known as the Japanese seerfish, is a species of true mackerel in the scombrid family (Scombridae). Their maximum reported length is 100 cm, and the maximum reported weight is 10.57 kg.

The nine-dash line—at various times also referred to as the ten-dash line and the eleven-dash line—refers to the undefined and vaguely located demarcation line used by China and Taiwan, for their claims of the major part of the South China Sea. The contested area in the South China Sea includes the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and various other areas including Pratas Island and the Vereker Banks, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal. The claim encompasses the area of Chinese land reclamation known as the "Great Wall of Sand".

Palawan, officially the Province of Palawan, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. Its capital is the city of Puerto Princesa, but the city is governed independently from the province as a highly urbanized city.

The Philippine House Special Committee on West Philippine Sea is a special committee of the Philippine House of Representatives.

Philippines v. China, also known as the South China Sea Arbitration, was an arbitration case brought by the Republic of the Philippines against the People's Republic of China under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) concerning certain issues in the South China Sea including the legality of China's claimed Nine-dash line.

The pinas, sometimes called "pinis" as well, is one of two types of junk rigged schooners of the east coast of the Malay peninsula, built in the Terengganu area. This kind of vessel was built of Chengal wood by the Malays since the 19th century and roamed the South China Sea and adjacent oceans as one of the two types of traditional sailing vessels the late Malay maritime culture has developed: The bedar and the pinas.

Reed Bank is a large tablemount or guyot in the South China Sea north-east of Dangerous Ground and north-east of the Spratly Islands. It covers an area of 8,866 square kilometres (3,423 sq mi), but with depths between 9 and only 45 meters. The submerged but hydrocarbon-rich area includes Nares Bank and Marie Louise Bank.

The 2019 Reed Bank incident occurred when F/B Gem-Ver, a Philippine fishing boat anchored in Reed Bank in the South China Sea, sank after it was rammed by a Chinese vessel, Yuemaobinyu 42212, during the early morning hours of 9 June 2019. The stricken vessel's crew were later rescued by a Vietnamese fishing vessel.

The blackfin gulper shark is a dogfish of the family Centrophoridae in the Northwest Pacific. Threats are not entirely clear but they may be bycatching from deepwater trawling and line fisheries and may also be used for cod liver oil and fish meal.

The Southern Theater Command Navy, or the South Sea Fleet is one of the three fleets of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, operating in the South China Sea under the Southern Theater Command. It is headquartered in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province.

The Sunda Plate is a minor tectonic plate straddling the Equator in the Eastern Hemisphere on which the majority of Southeast Asia is located.

The South China Sea disputes involve both island and maritime claims among several sovereign states within the region, namely Brunei, the People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (ROC/Taiwan), Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam. An estimated US$3.37 trillion worth of global trade passes through the South China Sea annually, which accounts for a third of the global maritime trade. 80 percent of China's energy imports and 39.5 percent of China's total trade passes through the South China Sea. Disputes are one of many aspect of China's salami slice strategy.

The article covers events that are related to the South China Sea dispute.

West Philippine Sea is the official designation by the Philippine government of eastern parts of the South China Sea which are included in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The term is also sometimes incorrectly used to refer to the South China Sea as a whole.

Xisha District is the municipal district of Sansha, Hainan. It administers the islands and reefs of the disputed Paracel Islands and its sea areas, and is responsible for the islands and reefs and sea areas of the Zhongsha Islands. The People's Government of Xisha District is stationed in Yongxing Island.

The Yinggehai-Song Hong Basin is located on the northwest of the South China Sea, between Hainan island and the coast of northern Vietnam. It is a large extensional pull-part basin in extensional continental marginal setting, developed along the Red River fault zone, which located at the suture of the Indochina Plate and Yangtze Plate.