The East China Sea is a marginal sea east of China.

Tensions between China and its neighbors have escalated in the South China Sea, and between China and Japan in the East China Sea.

The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north.

To the west is the Yellow Sea, to the south is the East China Sea, and to the east is Ulleung do and Liancourt Rocks in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

The peninsula is surrounded by the Yellow Sea to the west, the East China Sea and Korea Strait to the south, and the East Sea.

Along the Pacific Ocean's irregular western margins lie many seas, the largest of which are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea, Philippine Sea, Sea of Japan, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea.

Geography The East China Sea is bounded on the east by Kyūshū and the Ryukyu Islands of Japan, on the south by the South China Sea, and on the west by the Asian continent.

The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean.

The situation near China, whether in the East China Sea, near Japan, or in the West Pacific, is completely different.

Moreover, tensions with China over territorial claims in the East China Sea may adversely affect trade and foreign direct investment.

The ongoing disputes in the East China Sea and the South China Sea mean that Japan s top foreign policy priority must be to expand the country s strategic horizons.

This big ship here was the one sailed in by Zheng He in the early 15th century on his great voyages around the South China Sea, the East China Sea and across the Indian Ocean to East Africa.

Hatoyama was naïve enough to declare publicly his intention of turning the East China Sea into a Chinese led Sea of Fraternity.

All of this is fueling nationalist sentiment in China and South Korea, and making even more dangerous the already volatile territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.

China challenges Japanese control over more than seven square kilometers of islets called the Senkaku Islands in Japan, and the Diaoyu Islands in China in the East China Sea.

The US should not be concerned. China understands that it stands to benefit more from a dynamic and prosperous US economy than from fishing rights in the South China Sea or control of uninhabited rocks and outcroppings in the East China Sea.

Surrounded by China to the north, and a number of South East Asian countries, the South China Sea covers an area of around 4 million square meters.

South Korea s evolving foreign policy also may involve moving closer to China, as Korean nationalists join the Chinese in resisting Japan s rival claims to potential hydrocarbon deposits in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.

In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, there are extensive and densely populated alluvial plains, while on the edges of the Inner Mongolian plateau in the north, broad grasslands predominate.

Tensions are also running high in the East China Sea, where the two countries dispute sovereignty over a number of islands.

Bangka lies just east of Sumatra, separated by the Bangka Strait to the north lies the South China Sea, to the east, across the Gaspar Strait, is the island of Belitung, and to the south is the Java Sea.

To its west are the Yellow Sea and Korea Bay, and to its east lies Japan across the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea).

The Yellow Sea and the Korea Bay are off the west coast and the Sea of Japan (East Sea of Korea) is off the east coast.

The South China Sea belongs to China! many declared.

Calming the South China Sea

East of Cape Adare, at 170 14' East, is the Ross Sea.

That is why Japan must not yield to the Chinese government s daily exercises in coercion around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

This emerging strategic shift will likely have far reaching consequences, raising the stakes of Sino Japanese sparring over islands in the East China Sea.

TOKYO Japan has been in the news lately, owing to its dispute with China over six square kilometers of barren islets in the East China Sea that Japan calls the Senkakus and China calls the Diaoyu Islands.

Furthermore, America officially joined the East Asia Summit in 2011, easing concerns in the region about China s increasingly aggressive posture in the South China Sea.

Last summer, disputes over a string of contested islands in the East China Sea led to a furious exchange of charges between China and Japan, the world s second and third largest economies, respectively.

After laying claim to 80 of the South China Sea, it has just established a so called air defense identification zone in the East China Sea, raising the odds of armed conflict with Japan and threatening the principle of freedom of navigation of the seas and skies.

Japan, moreover, is likely to let today s passions over disputed islands in the East China Sea cool down, despite the anti Japanese outbursts in Chinese cities.

Avoiding Conflict in the South China Sea

The recent Sino Japanese diplomatic spat over disputed islands in the East China Sea followed, almost instantly, by a Sino Vietnamese row over similar atolls has put the spotlight on China and its regional policy.

The Senkaku Islands, located to the west of Okinawa in the East China Sea and currently uninhabited, were incorporated into Japan by the Meiji government in 1895.

Meanwhile, Asia is being roiled by intensifying territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas, as countries revive old claims against each other. East and South Asia are embroiled in an arms race, mainly at sea.

CANBERRA The South China Sea long regarded, together with the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula, as one of East Asia s three major flashpoints is making waves again.

It is surrounded by the South China Sea on the east, south, and west, and borders the Guangdong city of Shenzhen to the north over the Shenzhen River.

From San Francisco to the South China Sea

The biggest troublemaker in the South China Sea

Geography The strait links the Coral Sea to the east with the Arafura Sea in the west.

Hong Kong (China), China, Singapore and Taiwan Province of China are all among the top 10 recorded investors in South, East and South East Asia (table 3).

This partly explains the current tensions between China and Japan over their conflicting territorial claims to islands in the East China Sea, which occupy an area of only seven square kilometers, but are surrounded by rich hydrocarbon reserves.

Map showing territorial claims in the South China Sea.