South China Sea

The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Karimata and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around. The sea carries tremendous strategic importance; one-third of the world's shipping passes through it carrying over $3 trillion in trade each year, it contains lucrative fisheries that are crucial for the food security of millions in Southeast Asia, and huge oil and gas reserves are believed to lie beneath its seabed.According to International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition (1953), it is located south of China; east of Vietnam; west of the Philippines; east of the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, up to the Strait of Singapore in the western, and north of the Bangka Belitung Islands and Borneo However, in its unapproved draft 4th edition (1986), IHO proposed the Natuna Sea, thus the South China Sea southern boundary was shifted northward, from north of Bangka Belitung Islands to north and northeast of Natuna Islands. 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.