East China Sea
- proper noun
- China said Japan must meet it halfway in a longstanding territorial spat in the East China Sea as concerns grow at a key Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit here about whether the showdown could hurt economic ties between the two countries.
- islands in the East China Sea
Examples
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The latest threat to global growth, for example, is coming from a decades-old dispute between China and Japan over a handful of tiny islands in the East China Sea.
Blog text (21) -
There are recent reports of the possibility of conflict over Daioyu or Senkaku, tiny islands in the East China Sea.
Academic text (1998) -
Something in the East China Sea.
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South Korea, Russian coast, and East China Sea.
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"Whether we're talking about the South China Sea or the East China Sea, my message has been the same to everyone," Clinton told reporters.
Blog text (23) -
- What does that mean? - Maybe they're trying to link up with Hakuja in the East China Sea.
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China is building up its naval capabilities amid rising tensions with its neighbors over several territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
Blog text (23) -
The dispute over the small island chain in the East China Sea, known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, heated up this week after the Japanese government announced it would buy the islands from their private Japanese owners for around $30 million.
Blog text (34) -
There has been another incident between the U.S. and China in the East China Sea.
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China is building up its naval capabilities amid rising tensions with its neighbors over several territorial disputes in the East China Sea.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a sea located to the east of China' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'East' (direction) + 'China' (the country) + 'sea' (a large body of saltwater). This follows a common, cross-linguistic geographic naming pattern (direction + place + sea), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The name East China Sea comes from the simple idea of the sea being 'to the east of China', so it refers to the ocean area between China and nearby countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.