Qualla: Dashan Island

Dashan Island: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Somewhere between the port city of Lianyungang and the open waters of the East China Sea, a rocky speck of land barely one-tenth of a square kilometer stands as one of the most legally significant pieces of territory in China. Dashan Island, also known as Danianshan and Taibujiao, carries weight far beyond its physical size. It is one of the baseline points from which China measures the outer limits of its territorial sea, and in 2006, the People's Liberation Army erected a stone stele on its surface to mark that claim in granite.

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Dashan Island: A Dot on the Maritime Map

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dashan Island sits 28 nautical miles from the coast of Lianyungang, a major port city in Jiangsu Province. At just 0.115 square kilometers, it would take only a few minutes to walk its entire perimeter. The island belongs to the Qiansan Islands group, a scattered chain of small i...

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Dashan Island: Sovereignty in Stone

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On May 15, 1996, the Chinese government issued a formal declaration establishing the baselines of its territorial sea. These baselines are the legal starting points from which a nation measures its maritime zones, including the twelve-nautical-mile territorial sea and the two-hun...

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Dashan Island: Small Islands, Large Stakes

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Dashan Island belongs to a category of features that maritime lawyers and diplomats spend careers debating. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, whether a feature qualifies as an island, a rock, or a low-tide elevation determines how much ocean a nation can ...

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Dashan Island: The View from the Water

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The waters around Dashan Island are typical of the shallow, nutrient-rich East China Sea shelf. Fishing boats from Lianyungang and the surrounding coastline work these waters regularly, pulling in catches that have sustained coastal communities for centuries. The Qiansan Islands,...

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