What is the area of China now, including territorial waters

No one can say, there are many controversial places!

The territorial sea is generally 370,000 square kilometers, but with the addition of the inland sea, it is about 4.7 million square kilometers.

It includes the entire Bohai Sea and most of the Yellow, East and South China Seas and their jurisdictional exclusive economic zones, of which all sea areas within the nine-dash line of the South China Sea cover an area of about 3 million square kilometers.

The baselines of the territorial sea are delineated by the straight baseline method, which is composed of straight lines between adjacent base points. The outer limit of the territorial sea is a line of 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of the baselines of the territorial sea. In recent years, since the coastal continental shelf is considered to be an important resource pooling area, there are requests for countries to expand their territorial waters. The 1977 International Conference on the Law of the Sea defined 12 nautical miles as the territorial sea and 200 nautical miles as the direction of economic waters.

Conflict in territorial waters

On May 2, 2014, the "981" drilling platform, owned by a Chinese company, carried out drilling activities in the contiguous area of China's Xisha Islands to explore oil and gas resources. The first phase was completed and the second phase began on 27 May. The front and rear operating areas are 17 nautical miles away from the baselines of Zhongjian Island and Xisha Islands in China's Xisha Islands, and about 133 to 156 nautical miles from the coast of mainland Vietnam.

Since 2004, Chinese companies have been carrying out exploration activities in the relevant sea areas, including first-class exploration and well site investigation operations. The drilling operation on the 981 platform is a routine continuation of the exploration process and is fully within the sovereignty and jurisdiction of China.

China has clearly announced that the area of internal waters and territorial waters is 380,000 square kilometers.

China is bordered by the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea from north to south, with a continental coastline of more than 10,000 kilometers, three peninsulas of Liaodong, Shandong and Leizhou, three straits of the Bohai Sea, Qiongzhou and Taiwan, as well as 17 major rivers entering the sea and many harbors. Laughing.

It has more than 7,300 islands with an area of more than 500 square meters, including more than 400 inhabited islands, and the overall characteristics are that there are many uninhabited islands, few inhabited islands, many near-shore islands, few far-shore islands, more southern islands and fewer northern islands. China's islands have a wide variety of organisms, with relatively independent ecosystems and special habitats.

China has more than 20,000 species of marine life, including more than 3,000 species of marine fish; The offshore oil and natural gas resources are about 24 billion tons and 16 trillion cubic meters respectively, the coastal placer resource reserves are more than 3 billion tons, the theoretical reserves of marine renewable energy are 100 million kilowatts, the natural deep-water coastline is more than 400 kilometers, the deep-water port sites are more than 60, and the tidal flat covers an area of 10,000 square kilometers.

Problems and challenges

1. Extensive development methods

The marine industry is dominated by resource development and primary product production, and the added value of products is low, and the problems of low-quality structure and layout convergence are prominent. From 2002 to 2014, 1,339 square kilometers of land reclamation was confirmed.

2. Unbalanced development

Marine development activities are concentrated in coastal waters, and the available coastline, tidal flat space and shallow sea biological resources are decreasing day by day, and most of the economic fish in coastal waters can no longer form fishing floods, and the problem of nearshore overexploitation is prominent. Attention needs to be paid to the problem of insufficient development of the deep sea.

3. The problem of environmental pollution is prominent

The total amount of pollutants discharged into the rivers entering the sea is large, the deterioration trend of water quality in coastal waters has not been curbed, and the local sea areas are seriously polluted, mainly distributed in Liaodong Bay, Bohai Bay, Jiaozhou Bay, Yangtze River Estuary, Hangzhou Bay, Minjiang River Estuary, Pearl River Estuary and some coastal waters of large and medium-sized cities.

4. The ecosystem is seriously damaged

Affected by global climate change and irrational development activities, the ecological functions of coastal waters have been degraded, biodiversity has been reduced, the problem of marine eutrophication has been prominent, marine ecological disasters such as red tides have occurred frequently, some typical marine ecosystems have been seriously damaged, and the special habitats of some islands are difficult to maintain.

5. Resource supply is facing challenges

With the rapid economic and social development of coastal areas, the demand for production, living and ecological use of the sea is becoming more and more diversified, which poses new challenges to the traditional supply of marine resources.