VIETNAM Spratly Islands (disputed )

The Spratly Islands (Vietnamese: Quần đảo Trường Sa; Tagalog: Kapuluan ng Kalayaan;Malay: Kepulauan Spratly; Mandarin Chinese: 南沙群島/南沙群岛; pinyin: Nánshā Qúndǎo; Dusun: Kopulohon Dibut) are a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea. Composed of islands, islets and cays and more than 100 reefs, sometimes grouped in submerged old atolls, the archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and southern Vietnam. Named after the 19th-century British whaling captain Richard Spratly who sighted Spratly Island in 1843, the islands contain less than 2 km2 (490 acres) of naturally occurring land area, which is spread over an area of more than 425,000 km2 (164,000 sq mi).