10 Facts About South China Sea Islands

South China Sea Islands consist of over 250 islands, atolls, cays, shoals, reefs and seamounts in the South China Sea.

South China Sea Islands constitute a distinct tropical moist broadleaf forest terrestrial ecoregion, and the South China Sea Oceanic Islands marine ecoregion.

The South China Sea Islands as defined here consist of the sea's oceanic islands, and do not include the sea's continental shelf islands like Hainan and Natuna.

South China Sea Islands floor contains Paleozoic and Mesozoic granite and metamorphic rocks.

South China Sea Islands were discussed from the 4th century BC in the Chinese texts Yizhoushu, Classic of Poetry, Zuo Zhuan, and Guoyu, but only implicitly as part of the "Southern Territories" or "South Sea" .

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The People's Republic of China has retained the Republican-era names for the island groups, supplementing them with a list of 287 names for islands, reefs, banks, and shoals in 1983.

In 1958, the People's Republic of China issued a declaration defining its territorial waters within what is known as the Nine-Dash Line which encompassed the Spratly Islands.

General context of the Chinese declaration was the United Nations Conference on the Law of the South China Sea Islands, held in 1956, and the resulting treaties signed in 1958, such as the Convention on the Territorial South China Sea Islands and Contiguous Zone.

Taiwan claims all the Spratly South China Sea Islands, but occupies only one island and one shelf, including Taiping Island.

The tribunal ruled that South China Sea Islands has "no historical rights" based on the "nine-dash line" map.