Bashi Channel

English

Map including the BASHI CHANNEL (AMS, 1950)

Alternative forms

• Bashee Channel
• Bachi Channel

Etymology

From Bashi +‎ channel. Bashee, later Bashi, is from a local language term for a type of liquor drunk plentifully by the crew of William Dampier when they landed on an island south of the channel, as reported in Dampier's book the popular sensation A New Voyage Round the World (page 422) published in 1697. According to Dampier, the crew named the island after the liquor. The channel would take the name of the island. (See also basi.)

Pronunciation

• enPR: bäʹshē IPA^(key): /ˈbɑʃi/ + channel
• Rhymes: -ænəl

Proper noun

Bashi Channel

1. The strait, part of Luzon Strait, dividing Mavulis Island of the Philippines and Orchid Island/Lanyu of Taiwan and connecting the South China Sea/Taiwan Strait and Philippine Sea/Pacific Ocean.
   • 1878, Alexander George Findlay, A Directory for the Navigation of the Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan‎^[1], 2nd edition, Richard Holmes Laurie, page 939:

     The islands on the North side of the Bashi Channel will be described hereafter.

   • 1896, “Geographical Notes”, in The Scottish Geographical Magazine‎^[2], volume XII, Edinburgh: T. and A. Constable, page 101:

     Spain and Japan, having had some disagreements respecting the possession of certain islands lying between the Japanese Archipelago and the Philippines, have agreed that the Bashi Channel shall form the boundary between the possessions of the two States.

   • 1920, “Batanes Islands”, in Census of the Philippine Islands: 1918‎^[3], volume 1, Manila: Bureau of Printing, page 95:

     The Batanes are separated from Formosa by the Bashi Channel, which has a minimum depth of 1,009 fathoms, and from the Babuyanes by the Balintang Channel, which has a minimum depth of 95 fathoms.

   • 1944 October 12, “Record Air Attack Smashes Jap Base In Day-Long Raids”, in Times-News‎^[4], volume 27, number 153, Twin Falls, Idaho, page 1:

     Although the southern tip of Formosa is 225 miles from Luzon, the small islands at the northern end of the Philippines archipelago are separated from Formosa by only the 100-mile wide Bashi channel.

   • 1967, Theodore Roscoe, Pig Boats‎^[5], page 359:

     Accompanied by SEADRAGON and BLACKFISH, SHARK II (Commander E. N. Blakely) left Pearl Harbor on September 23 to begin her third war patrol. The pack slipped in through Luzon Strait and ranged along the 20° parallel, covering an area about midway between Hainan and the western end of Bashi Channel.

   • 1979, “Southeast Asian Affairs”, in The 1979 Compton Yearbook‎^[6], F. E. Compton, page 306:

     In May the Soviet fleet conducted war games off the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines. Reports that Soviet vessels had obtained the rights to base facilities in Cam Ranh Bay on Vietnam's east coast drew special attention to the exercises.

   • 1981 August 16, “U.S. urged to strengthen links with free world to protect Pacific area”, in Free China Weekly‎^[7], volume XXII, number 32, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1:

     Dr. Angelesio Tugado, chairman of the International Development Center of the Philippines, stressed the importance of the strategic position of the Philippines and the Republic of China in the Taiwan Straits and the Bashi Channel, describing the two countries as key elements in maintaining stability and peace in the Western Pacific.

   • 2014, James R. Holmes, “Strategic Features of the South China Sea”, in Naval War College Review‎^[8], volume 67, number 2, page 45:

     One sample question: How will Chinese ballistic-missile submarines (SSBNs) based at Sanya, on Hainan Island, reach patrol grounds in the western Pacific should Beijing choose to send them out? To maintain stealth, SSBNs would first have to evade any adversary picket submarines lying offshore. Once in deep water, they would cruise eastward toward the Philippines. In all likelihood Chinese boats would exit through the Luzon Strait, the narrow sea between Taiwan and the Philippine island of Luzon.
     Or, more precisely, maritime geography will force them to exit through the narrow Bashi Channel, near the northern edge of the strait.

Translations

the channel of water between Luzon and Taiwan

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 巴士海峽 / 巴士海峡 (zh) (Bāshì Hǎixiá)

• Japanese: バシー海峡 (バシーかいきょう, Bashī kaikyō)

Further reading

• “Bashi Channel”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.