South China Sea
8
3.6
- proper noun
:
Mar de China Meridional
- One example is Beijing's faceoff against other nearby nations over the resource-rich South China Sea.
- South China Sea dispute
- islands in the South China Sea
Look at all these little atolls that they're turning into landing strips in the South China Sea, their stated aims on Taiwan.
- Look at all these little atolls that they're turning into landing strips in the South China Sea, their stated aims on Taiwan.
- I think it was like China Port and Dredging Company that built all those islands of the South China Sea.
- So if I and I think we should stick with the scenario in East China Sea, not the South China Sea.
Examples
-
Of the 330 incidents worldwide reported to the IMO in 2004, 113 occurred in the South China Sea and 60 took place in the straits, amounting to more than half of the global total.
Academic text (2005) -
China is flexing its own military muscle in the South China Sea and East China Sea.
Blog text (17) -
We are seeing a dramatic example of this in the South China Sea.
Blog text (30) -
The plan of China is to drive away the US Navy in the South China Sea and put the US Navy here.
-
There were ten of us, we took off from a banana boat on the South China Sea.
-
His attention is 90 feet down, on the bottom of the South China Sea.
Academic text (2011) -
Both our families were pretty well off, and we lived year-round in this seaside resort on the South China Sea.
Fiction book (1990) -
Its cannons, now half-buried in the mud at the bottom of the South China Sea, would have been necessary for defense.
Academic text (2011) -
A global container port with deep harbors in the South China Sea, the island nation-state of Singapore prospers despite limited freshwater sources.
Academic text (2016) -
Beijing today released this image and two others taken over the South China Sea.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The referent 'a sea located to the south of China / near China' is directly and compositionally built from 'South' (direction), 'China' (the country) and 'sea' (a body of saltwater). This toponymic pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will readily infer the general geographic meaning (though not specific geopolitical details).
Etymology
South China Sea literally names the sea to the south of China, so people long ago used it to refer to that part of the ocean. Because many countries, ships, and fishermen meet there and it often has strong storms, the name now means that busy, sometimes dangerous area of water.