Bashi Channel

The Bashi Channel (Chinese: 巴士海峽; pinyin: Bā shì hǎi xiá)^[1] is a waterway between Mavulis Island of the Batanes Islands, Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan. It is a part of the Luzon Strait, with the Pacific Ocean to the east, and is between the East China Sea and the South China Sea. It is characterized by windy storms during the rainy period, which lasts from June to December.

Bashi is between Mavulis Island and Orchid Island

Bashi is the northern channel of Luzon Strait

History

Controversy originating from the Bashi Channel started in the 1890s, when the Philippine Revolution commenced. Despite the revolution, the Treaty of Paris, entered into in 1898 by Spain and the United States, specifically said that, "the northernmost part of Philippine territory ceded by Spain to the US ends at the 20th parallel, or south of the Balintang Channel." The Bashi Channel was not included here because original treaties signed in this period of time did not use latitude and longitude.^[2]

Purpose

Map showing the Bashi Channel (AMS, 1950)

The Bashi Channel is an important passage for military operations. The Philippines and Taiwan dispute the ownership of the waters because both sides say the region lies within 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) of their shores. The channel is also significant to communication networks. Many of the undersea communication cables that carry data and telephone traffic between Asian countries pass through the Bashi Channel, making it a major potential point of failure for the Internet. In December 2006, a magnitude 6.7 submarine earthquake cut several undersea cables at the same time, causing a significant communications bottleneck that lasted several weeks.^[3][4]

See also

• 2006 Hengchun earthquake
• Cape Eluanbi
• Qixingyan (Taiwan)