South China Sea

South China Sea

The South China Sea is located in the south of the Chinese mainland. It is one of the three largest marginal seas in the Western Pacific Ocean. It has an area of about 3 million 500 thousand square kilometers. The total area of China's territorial sea is about 2 million 100 thousand square kilometers. It is the largest and deepest water area in China's coastal waters. Its average depth is 1212 meters, and its maximum depth is 5559 meters.

The South China Sea is about 2000 kilometers across the north and south, and about 1000 kilometers east west. It rises from the southern part of Nanaodao and Taiwan island to the south of Guangdong Province, and from Kalimantan to Sumatra to the Chinese mainland, the South China Peninsula, the Malay Peninsula, and the east to Philippines. It connects with the Pacific Ocean through the Strait or the waterway, and the West connects with the India ocean. It is a semi enclosed sea from the northeast to the southwest.

In the Han Dynasty and the northern and Southern Dynasties, it was called the rising sea and boiling sea. In the Qing Dynasty, it was gradually renamed Nanhai. The Dongsha Islands, Paracel Islands, the Zhongsha Islands and Spratly Islands are the islands in the South China Sea. The coastline of the Chinese mainland is more than 5800 km long, and the coastal areas include Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and Taiwan. The northern coast of the South China Sea is an important spawning and feeding ground for traditional economic fish.

The South China Sea is rich in marine oil and gas mineral resources, coastal and island tourism resources, marine energy resources, port and shipping resources, tropical and subtropical biological resources. It is the most important island and coral reef, mangrove, seagrass bed and other tropical ecosystem distribution area in China. Since the 1970s, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and other countries have successively occupied some islands and reefs in Nansha, causing disputes in the South China Sea.

Human history

Name evolution

Jurisdictional governance

In the Western Zhou Dynasty, it was called Tiger to pacify Huaiyi. Countries in the South China Sea expressed their surrender to the Western Zhou Dynasty.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, the whole country was in chaos. Zhao Tuo, a captain of Nanhai County, annexed three counties and established the state of Nanyue (Guangdong). Hainan Island and Nanhai islands were under the jurisdiction of Nanyue.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Chinese began to sail in the South China Sea and found a group of coral islands, and set up zhuya and daner counties. In the eighteen years (42 AD) of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wu Fu, general of the south of Changsha, had been to "thousands of miles of Paracel Islands".

. The South China Sea first appeared on the topographic map of China in the Han Dynasty

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In the Three Kingdoms period, the "South Island foreign matter" written by Wan Zhen, and "Fu Nan Chuan" in Kangtai, have a description of the characteristics of the Spratly Islands. In the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Faxian left his travel notes about Nanyang.

In the Sui Dynasty, Chang Jun and others were sent to Chitu state through the South China Sea Islands. After the Tang Dynasty, more and more Chinese people came to this area to engage in fishing activities. China's successive governments also ruled the Spratly Islands. In 789, the South China Sea Islands were included in the territory of China, and the South China Sea Islands were put under the jurisdiction of Guangnan West Road

. During the Qingli period (1041 to 1048), Zeng Gong Liang's "Wu Jing Zeng Yao" assigned Paracel Islands to the coastal areas of the Song Dynasty. In the two years (1277) of the Southern Song Dynasty, 1277, December, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty lived in the Paracel Islands.

Song Dynasty inherited the administrative establishment of Tang Dynasty, Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha Islands belong to Qiongzhou Prefecture

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The territory of the Yuan Dynasty included the Spratly Islands. In Yuan history, the Yuan Dynasty visited the Spratly Islands under the jurisdiction of the Navy. Guo Shoujing "measured 15 degrees out of the north pole of the South China Sea" on the islands in the South China Sea, and also measured the time of day length in the South China Sea

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During the Ming Dynasty, Zheng He and others led hundreds of thousands of people to cross the South China Sea route as far as West Asia and East Africa. The Ming government established its sovereignty and jurisdiction over the South China Sea Islands and their waters through naval patrols. In the period of Chenghua and Hongzhi (about 1488), Xisha and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea Islands are the jurisdiction of Wanzhou.

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In the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese government painted Spratly Islands on the authoritative map, and began to explicitly divide the South China Sea islands into four archipelago, and exercise administrative jurisdiction over Spratly Islands. The Paracel Islands Navy is responsible for patrolling the Guangdong Navy.

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In the summer of 1901, Japanese businessman Nishizawa Yoji was drifting to the largest island in the Dongsha Islands - Dongsha Island. The following year, Nishizawa Jici rushed into Dongsha Island, stole phosphate fertilizer and sold it back to Taiwan, which attracted the attention of the Qing government. The Qing government sent officials to inspect Dongsha Island and erected a monument as a sign of sovereignty.

On 1909, Li Zhun, governor of Guangdong, visited the Paracel Islands. China's national flag was raised on Yongxing Island, and the salute was heard 21 times. In the second year of Xuantong, the constitution of Dongsha Island was promulgated.

In 1911, the Guangdong provincial government announced that the Paracel Islands should be placed under the jurisdiction of Hainan Island Ya county.

In 1920, China's government placed Paracel Islands under the jurisdiction of Qiongzhou.

In 1928, the Guangdong political branch allocated Paracel Islands to Zhongshan University.

In 1930, the French gunboat mail Houston went to the South Island of Spratly Islands for "measurement" and secretly inserted the flag of France.

In April 1933, the French gunboat Amy Rhodes and the measuring ship alderrob were led by Xue Fu, director of the Institute of Oceanography, Xigong, and traversed the Spratly Islands, adding "inspection" to show "occupation". In July, France illegally occupied 9 small islands in Spratly Islands.

. In December 21st, Klau Tai Merl, governor of the * *, signed a decree to merge the island of Spratly Islands into Annan batdi province.

In 1935, the government of the Republic of China established the "land and water map Review Committee", and published 96 Chinese and English names in Spratly Islands. In April, the Commission published the map of islands in the South China Sea, which determined the southernmost boundary line of the South China Sea to 4 ° north latitude, and marked the Zengmu sand within the boundary line. The Dongsha Islands, China's total plan, was published in 1936, and was also named "Dongsha Islands, Paracel Islands, Spratly Islands and the Sha Sha islands". The surrounding countries are marked with the national boundaries, showing the islands of the South Sea belong to the Chinese territory, and the prototype of the U interrupted line in the South China Sea.

. In May, Guangdong Province began to set up an office in Dongsha Island.

In 1939, Japan took Xisha and Spratly Islands as a "New South Archipelago", and occupied Taiwan, Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung. Japan built coastal defense positions, built oil depots, and sorted out the parking areas for seaplanes, especially the runway on Dongsha Island. After the war, according to the principles set out in the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation, the Chinese government officially resumed the exercise of sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands.

In October 1946, China's Navy set up a "forward fleet" in Shanghai, and took over sovereignty at Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands. The receiving personnel went to Nansha by Taiping, Yongxing, Zhongjian and Zhongye, two of which were Taiping and Yongxing, and two of which were Zhongjian and Zhongye. During the reception, the government of the Republic of China established the Spratly Islands Management Office on Taiping Island, which is under the jurisdiction of the Guangdong provincial government. In October 5th, the French warship cut the Froude to occupy Spratly Islands's South Wei island and Taiping Island, and erected stone tablets on Taiping island. China immediately reacted to the Chinese government's decision to recapture Xisha and Spratly Islands, and sent the warship Tokyo to Paracel Islands. When the ship sailed to Yongxing island and found that there were Chinese troops stationed on the island, it sailed to coral island and set up an administrative center on the island

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In 1947, Fang Yu Department of the Ministry of the interior of the Republic of China printed the location map of islands in the South China Sea. The map the Dongsha Islands, Paracel Islands, the Zhongsha Islands and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. And there are U shaped discontinuity lines in the fourth week, and the southern tip of the line is at about 4 degrees north latitude.

In February 1948, this map was included in the map of the administrative region of the Republic of China compiled by Fu Jiaojin and Wang Xiguang from the Department of Fang Yu of the Ministry of the interior. It was published by the commercial press. This is the U-shaped intermittent line officially marked on the map of the South China Sea.

The Zhongsha Islands and the Dongsha Islands, China's premier Zhou Enlai, China's premier and Minister of foreign affairs, on August 15, 1951, pointed out in the statement on the draft of the United States, Britain and Japan and the San Francisco conference: "Paracel Islands and Nanwei island are like the whole Spratly Islands, Zhongsha Islands and Dongsha Islands."

On September 8, the United States, Japan and other countries signed the "peace treaty with Japan" in San Francisco

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The map of China published by the people's Republic of China basically follows the map of the administrative region of the Republic of China published in 1948 and the attached map, but the specific plotting changes slightly.

In 1954, the administrative division map of the people's Republic of China cancelled two intermittent lines between Hainan Island and the coast of Vietnam, and added one intermittent line between Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands, forming nine sections of the South China Sea and one section of the East China Sea.

In 1956, the Kuomintang Taiwan authorities dispatched ships to the Spratly Islands's South reef, North sub reef, Chung Ye Island, Nam Kok island and other erect sovereignty stone tablets.

In July 1957, China dispatched meteorological workers from various provinces and established Paracel Islands meteorological station. Later it was renamed Xisha marine hydrometeorological service.

Chinese PinYin : Nan Hai