{"id":83093,"date":"2026-01-18T12:21:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T06:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=83093"},"modified":"2026-01-19T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T11:00:30","slug":"pratas-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/pratas-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Pratas Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Pratas Islands Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Chinese reconnaissance drone briefly flew \u200dover the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands at the top end of \u200bthe South China Sea recently, in \u200cwhat Taiwan\u2019s defence ministry called a \u201cprovocative and irresponsible\u201d \u200bmove.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Pratas Islands<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pratas Islands, also known as the <\/span><b>Dongsha Islands<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are a small <\/span><b>group of three islands <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">located in the<\/span><b> northern part of the South China Sea.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These islands are characterized by a <\/span><b>circular atoll structure,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with <\/span><b>Dongsha Island<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> being the <\/span><b>only island above sea level<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while the other two are submerged.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are <\/span><b>composed primarily of clastic coral and reef flats<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> approximately 15 miles (24 kilometers) in diameter, <\/span><b>enclosing a lagoon <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">about 10 miles (16 kilometers) in diameter.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Once discovered during the ancient Han Dynasty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Dongsha Island became an <\/span><b>important point along trade and fishing routes through the <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/taiwan-strait\" target=\"_blank\">Taiwan Strait<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which separates Taiwan from mainland China, and the Bashi Channel between Y&#8217;Ami Island of the Philippines and Orchid Island of Taiwan.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are strategically important positions <\/span><b>along the major sea route connecting the Pacific and Indian ocean.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It lies approximately <\/span><b>445 km southwest of Kaohsiung, Taiwan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><b>320 km southeast of Hong Kong.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>People\u2019s Republic of China claims them, but Taiwan controls them <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and has declared them <\/span><b>part of the Dongsha Atoll National Park.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are <\/span><b>no permanent residents<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. But Taiwanese marines are stationed there.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The region is notable for its <\/span><b>rich biodiversity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, supporting a variety of flora and fauna, including numerous fish species, coral, and migratory birds like the Chinese Egret.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>ongoing tensions between Taiwan and China<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, along with the impacts of <\/span><b>global warming,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> continue to<\/span><b> pose risks to the islands<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and their biodiversity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/taiwan-says-chinese-drone-made-provocative-flight-over-south-china-sea-island\/article70519888.ece\/amp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pratas (Dongsha) Islands are three islands in the northern South China Sea, forming a circular coral atoll with one island above sea level. Read more about Pratas Islands, Location, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":83239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4804,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-83093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-pratas-islands","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}