Islands in the South China Sea includes the South China Sea Islands (Spratly Islands, Pratas Island, Paracel Islands and Macclesfield Bank), islands on the China coast, on the Vietnam coast, on the Borneo coast, and the peripheral islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, etc.
See main article: South China Sea Islands.
See main article: Pratas Island. Administered as part of Cijin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, Republic of China
See main article: Paracel Islands.
The Paracel Islands are occupied by the People's Republic of China (PRC), and claimed by the PRC, the ROC (Taiwan), and Vietnam.
| Amphitrite Group | Crescent Group | Ungrouped | |
|---|---|---|---|
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See main article: Spratly Islands.
See also: List of maritime features in the Spratly Islands. The Spratly Islands were, in 1939, fourteen coral islets mostly inhabited by countless seabirds.[1] According to a Chinese 1986 source, the Spratly Islands consist of 14 islands or islets, 6 banks, 113 submerged reefs, 35 underwater banks, 21 underwater shoals.[2] For some reason, neither of these mention the 11th largest naturally occurring island located on the Swallow Reef atoll, occupied by Malaysia. The islands are all of a similar nature; they are cays (or keys) - sand islands formed on old degraded and submerged coral reefs.[1]
| Taiwan (ROC) | Philippines | Vietnam | Malaysia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Note that, according PRC, in the Spratly Islands area, the definition of "island" is applied very liberally to reefs and artificial islands. There are in fact only about a dozen islands with an area greater than 1 hectare.[3]
| Taiwan (ROC) | China (PRC) | Philippines | Vietnam | Malaysia | Brunei | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
See main article: Scarborough Shoal.
See main article: Macclesfield Bank. There are no islands, nor any land above sea-level, in the Macclesfield Bank.
In conjunction with the Scarborough Shoal, which also contains no islands, the PRC refer to the combined area as the Zhongsha Islands, even though it contains no islands.
Ilha Verde is connected to the Macao Peninsula as a result of land reclamation. Ilha de Coloane and Ilha da Taipa are connected to each other also as a result of land reclamation.
See Islands and Peninsulas of Hong Kong for a full list.