<Tr> <Th_colspan="2"> Standard Mandarin </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Hanyu Pinyin </Th> <Td> Jiǔduàn Xiàn </Td> </Tr> <P> The Nine - Dash Line--at various times also referred to as the "10 - dash line" and the "11 - dash line"--refers to the undefined, vaguely located, demarcation line used initially by the government of the Republic of China (ROC / Taiwan) and subsequently also by the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), for their claims of the major part of the South China Sea . The contested area in the South China Sea includes the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and various other areas including the Pratas Islands, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal . The claim encompasses the area of Chinese land reclamation known as the "great wall of sand". </P> <P> An early map showing a U-shaped eleven - dash line was published in the then Republic of China on 1 December 1947 . Two of the dashes in the Gulf of Tonkin were later removed at the behest of Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, reducing the total to nine . Subsequent editions added a dash to the other end of the line, extending it into the East China Sea . </P>

China’s nine-dash line claim over the south china sea
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