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THE GEOGRAPHY:
The South China Sea is a part of the Pacific Ocean that includes an area between Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan – around 1,400,000 square miles. It is located:
* South of mainland China, including the island of Taiwan, in the east
* East of Vietnam and Cambodia
* West of the Philippines
* East of the Malay peninsula and Sumatra, up to the Strait of Malacca in the west
* North of the Bangka–Belitung Islands and Borneo
The minute and mostly uninhabited islands of the South China Sea number in the hundreds.