The Taiwan Strait is a strait separating the island of Taiwan and the Asian continent. The strait connects the South China Sea to the south, and the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide.

Names

Former names of the Taiwan Strait include the or from a dated name for Taiwan; the , Fukien or Fokien, from the Chinese province forming the strait's western shore; and the , a calque of the strait's name in Hokkien and Hakka.

Geography

thumb|left|Distributions of rivers in Taiwan and their annual sediment loads

The Taiwan Strait is the body of water separating Fujian Province from Taiwan Island. The international agreement does not define the Taiwan Strait but places its waters within the South China Sea, whose northern limit runs from Cape Fugui (the northernmost point on Taiwan Island; Fukikaku) to Niushan Island to the southernmost point of Pingtan Island and thence westward along the parallel N. to the coast of Fujian Province. The draft for a new edition of the IHO's Limits of Oceans and Seas does precisely define the Taiwan Strait, classifying it as part of the North Pacific Ocean. It makes the Taiwan Strait a body of water between the East and South China Seas and delimits it:

The entire strait is on Asia's continental shelf. It is almost entirely less than deep, with a short ravine of that depth off the southwest coast of Taiwan. As such, there are many islands in the strait. The largest and most important islands off the coast of Fujian are Xiamen, Gulangyu, Pingtan (the "Haitan" of the IHO delineation), Kinmen, and Matsu. The first three are controlled by the People's Republic of China (PRC); the last two by the Republic Of China (ROC). Within the strait lie the Penghu or the Pescadores, also controlled by the ROC. There is a major underwater bank north of the Penghu Islands.

All of Fujian Province's rivers except the Ting run into the Taiwan Strait. The largest two are the Min and the Jiulong.

Median line

A theoretical "median line", also known as the Davis line, was defined down the middle of the strait by US Air Force General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. in 1955, after which the US pressured both sides not to cross it. As a tacit understanding, it never gained official or legal status. The PRC has never recognized the median line. Between 1954 and 2019, military craft generally did not cross the area except on three occasions.

In 2019, warplanes of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) crossed the median line for the first time since 1999. In 2020, the PRC Foreign Ministry explicitly denied the existence of a median line and no longer act as if such a line exists.

Geology

Sediment distribution

Each year, Taiwan's rivers carry up to 370 million tons of sediments into the sea, including 60 to 150 million tons deposited into the Taiwan Strait. During the past ten thousand years, 600 billion tons of riverine sediments have been deposited in the Taiwan Strait, locally forming a lobe up to 40 m thick in the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. On 26 February 2022, China denounced the sailing of the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet guided-missile destroyer through the Taiwan Strait as a "provocative act".

Since 2018 China has denied that the concept of international waters applies to the Taiwan Strait. China does not claim sovereignty over the entire strait but seeks to regulate what it views as "support for the Taiwan authorities and muscle-flexing against the mainland". This position has led to concerns from American, Australian, and French officials and objection from Taiwan. "International waters" is technically not defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and there is no high seas corridor within the Taiwan Strait, but transit rights mimicking high seas such as innocent passage and freedom of navigation are generally allowed within exclusive economic zones.

Economy

Fishermen have used the strait as a fishing resource since time immemorial. In the modern world, it is the gateway used by ships of almost every kind on passage to and from nearly all the important ports in Northeast Asia. Chinese vessels often trespass into Taiwanese territorial waters to fish or dredge sand, leading to interceptions by the Coast Guard Administration as well as seizures, confiscations, and fines.

Taiwan is building major wind farms in the strait.

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography

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