Sansha

Sansha 三沙市
Prefecture-level city
City Hall of Sansha
Sansha
Coordinates (Sansha municipal government): 16°49′52″N 112°20′19″E / 16.8310°N 112.3386°E / 16.8310; 112.3386
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Hainan
Prefecture-level city established	24 July 2012[1]
City seat	Yongxing Island (Woody Island)
Government
• CPC Municipal Party Secretary	Zhang Jun (张军)
• Mayor	Ah Dong (阿东)
Area
• Land	<13 km2 (<5 sq mi)
• Water	~2,000,000 km2 (~772,000 sq mi)
Population  (2013)[2]
• Total	1,443
Time zone	UTC+08:00 (China Standard Time)
Postal code	573100
Website	www.sansha.gov.cn
Territorial Dispute: There are on-going territorial disputes in the entire area covered by the city, whose administrative authority is not internationally recognized.

Sansha
"Sansha", as written in Chinese
Chinese	三沙
Hanyu Pinyin	Sānshā
Postal	Samsha
Literal meaning	three sands (referring to the Chinese names for the three island groups)
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sānshā Wu Romanization sae1so1 Xiang IPA siã44 so44 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Sāamsā Jyutping saam1saa1 Southern Min Hokkien POJ sam-sua

Sansha City (Chinese: 三沙市; pinyin: Sānshā Shì) is a prefecture-level city under the Hainan province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and is the southernmost and least populated prefecture in China, with the smallest land area but the largest maritime territory.^[a] The city's seat is located on Yongxing Island in the South China Sea, and administers (actually or nominally) several island groups, atolls, seamounts and a number of other ungrouped maritime features within the nine-dash line,^[3] although the PRC's de facto control over the area varies. The name "Sansha", literally meaning "three sands", refers to the three archipelago districts of Xisha (Chinese: 西沙; lit. 'west sand'), Zhongsha (Chinese: 中沙; lit. 'central sand') and Nansha (Chinese: 南沙; lit. 'south sand').

Sansha was created on 24 July 2012,^[4] and administers a group of 260 islands, reefs and beaches located in the Spratly Islands (Nansha), Paracel Islands (Xisha), and Macclesfield Bank (Zhongsha Islands).^[5] Reports in the China Daily stated that the establishment of Sansha was simply an upgrade of its administrative status from the previous county-level administration to prefecture-level.^[3] Subsequent developments have turned Sansha City (located on Xisha District's Yongxing Island) into a small town with over 1,400 residents, with a dual-use airport that has a 2,700 metres (3,000 yd) runway and two artificial harbors capable of docking sea vessels up to 5,000 tonnes.^[6][7]

Due to territorial disputes in the South China Sea,^[8][9] foreign reaction to the city's establishment was not positive. The United States Department of State called the change in the administrative status "unilateral", and the move has received criticism from nations engaged in the South China Sea dispute, particularly the Philippines as well as Vietnam and the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), which claims the island.^[10]

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