How important is the South China Sea?

Value

1. Economy

Many fishing grounds in the South China Sea are traditional production areas for Chinese fishermen. There are 1,064 species of fish, 135 species of shrimps, and 73 species of cephalopods recorded on the northern continental shelf; 80% of the marine catch in this area comes from the offshore waters of the northern coast of the South China Sea.

According to the census data of the Ministry of Land and Resources of China, there are more than ten known major oil-bearing basins on the South China Sea continental shelf, covering an area of ​​approximately 852,400 square kilometers, with oil reserves of at least 23 billion to 30 billion tons, accounting for approximately 10% of the world’s oil reserves. More than 1/4 of the reserves;

20 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. There is a large amount of flammable ice on the seafloor of the South China Sea, with resources amounting to approximately 19.4 billion tons of oil equivalent, which is equivalent to six times the oil and gas geological reserves that have been proven by deep-water exploration in the South China Sea. The South China Sea is also extremely rich in polymetallic manganese nodule reserves. ?

2. Strategy

The South China Sea is the most critical hub and throat on the north-south passage of the Western Pacific Marginal Sea, and is China's extremely important strategic transportation lifeline. It is a maritime corridor and intermediate station between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. It is also one of the most important maritime routes from Western Europe to the Middle East and the Far East. It is the only place that China must pass through to connect Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Africa.

3. Transportation

The South China Sea waterway is one of the busiest waterways in the world. At least more than 37 world traffic routes pass through this sea area; there are more than 41,000 ships in the South China Sea every year. More than half of the world's large and medium-sized merchant ships and supertankers pass through this sea area, and more than 90% of various important raw materials imported by the United States from the Asia-Pacific region pass through this sea area.

More than 85% of China’s oil imports must be transported through the South China Sea; more than 90% of Japan and South Korea’s oil, and more than 98% of Taiwan’s oil imports must pass through this area.

Extended information:

Geography

The South China Sea is the third continental sea in the world, second only to the Coral Sea and the Arabian Sea, with an area of ​​approximately 3.56 million square kilometers. It is approximately three times the total area of ​​the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. The average water depth is about 1,212 meters. The deepest point is the abyssal plain in the central part, which reaches about 5,567 meters.

The South China Sea is divided into continental shelves, continental slopes and abyssal basins. unit. The continental shelf is the widest in the southwest, the northern continental shelf is about 285 kilometers wide, and the eastern and western continental shelves are the narrowest. To the west of Luzon Island, the island shelf is only 5 meters wide. The continental slope descends in a stepped manner, and the main South China Sea islands are on its continental slope. , the east and west continental slopes are steeper, and there are many incised canyons.

The Ancient South China Sea is east of Taiwan-Palawan, adjacent to the oceans of the Pacific Plate and the Philippine Plate. Between Palawan Island and Hainan Island (now the South China Sea) is the continental crust of Eurasia.

Around 30-33 million years ago, that is, at the end of the Eocene, with the collision of the Indian plate and the Eurasian plate, the entire East Asia formed an extrusion-escape fan-shaped structure, North China-South China. The block was extruded to the east, and the Indosinian block was extruded to the southeast. The two were roughly bounded by the Red River Fault Zone.

The difference in speed and angle between the two tears the continental crust between Palawan Island and Hainan Island, and the mantle material rises up to form the South Ocean Ridge. The rifting activity of the South Ocean basin ended about 15 million years ago. The South Ocean basin split approximately 600-700 kilometers between 33 and 15 million years ago.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Nanhai