East China Sea
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East_China_Sea.jpg
The East China Sea is a marginal sea and part of the Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 1,249,000 km². In China, the sea is called the East Sea. In South Korea, it is sometimes called the South Sea.
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Geography
The East China Sea is bounded on the East by the Kyushu and Ryukyu islands, on the South by Taiwan, and on the West by Mainland China. It is connected with the South China Sea by the Taiwan Strait and with the Sea of Japan by the Korea Strait; it opens in the North to the Yellow Sea.
| East China Sea | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | |
| Pinyin | Zhōngguó Dōng Hǎi |
| Wade-Giles | Chung-kuo Tung Hai |
| Simplified Chinese | 中国东海 |
| Traditional Chinese | 中國東海 |
| Japanese name | |
| Romaji | Higashi Shina Kai |
| Kanji | 東シナ海 (東支那海) |
| Korean name | |
| Hangul | 동중국해 |
| Hanja | 東中國海 |
| Revised Romanization | |
| McCune-Reischauer | |
Territories with borders on the sea (clockwise from north) include: South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China.
Rivers
Chang Jiang is the largest river flowing into the East China Sea.
Islands
See also: List of islands in the East China Sea
Resources
The People's Republic of China (PRC) recently discovered that there exists an undersea natural gas field in the East China Sea, part of the field lies within the Chinese EEZ while the remaining lies on the disputed EEZ between Japan and the PRC. The PRC has set up the Chunxiao gas field in its own EEZ (located 4 km inside the Chinese side of the EEZ boundary claimed by Japan) to tap up the natural gas. Japan also seeks a share in the natural gas resource because part of the field lies on the disputed EEZ.
Territorial Dispute
The East China Sea is a place of territorial disputes between the PRC and Japan, notably for undersea natural gas resources. Under the United Nation's Law of the Sea, PRC claims the disputed ocean territory as its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) due to its being part of PRC's natural extension of its continental shelf, while Japan claims the disputed ocean territory as its own EEZ because it is within 200 nautical miles from Japan's coast.
In October to November 2004, Japan identified that a PRC submarine entered Japanese territorial waters. Japanese coast guards tried to force the submarine to surface, but it eventually escaped and returned to the Chinese seaport of Qingdao.
- See also: Xihu Trough, Geography of China
External links
- Gas and oil rivalry in the East China Sea (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/FG27Dh03.html) article by Kosuke Takahashi (July 27, 2004)de:Ostchinesisches Meer
es:Mar de China Oriental et:Ida-Hiina meri ja:東シナ海 ko:동중국해 zh:东海