The Paracel Islands are surrounded by productive fishing grounds and by potential oil and gas reserves. In 1932, French Indochina annexed the islands and set up a weather station on Pattle Island; maintenance was continued by its successor, Vietnam. China has occupied all the Paracel Islands since 1974, when its troops seized a South Vietnamese garrison occupying the western islands. China built a military installation on Woody Island with an airfield and artificial harbor. The islands also are claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam.

Southeastern Asia, group of small islands and reefs in the South China Sea, about one-third of the way from central Vietnam to the northern Philippines

16 30 N, 112 00 E

Southeast Asia

land area is about thirteen times the size of the National Mall in Washington, DC

0 km

518 km

NA

tropical

mostly low and flat

highest point: unnamed location on Rocky Island 14 m

none

arable land 0%; permanent crops 0%; permanent pasture 0%

0 sq km (2012)

typhoons

NA

composed of 130 small coral islands and reefs divided into the northeast Amphitrite Group and the western Crescent Group

no indigenous inhabitants

The islands have the potential for oil and gas development. Waters around the islands support commercial fishing, but the islands themselves are not populated on a permanent basis.

1 (2013)

small Chinese port facilities on Woody Island and Duncan Island

occupied by China