An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter scale jolted southeastern China's sea area near Taiwan on Monday night.

The quake hit the sea area to the east of Taiwan's Hualien county at 9:40 PM (Beijing Time), according to the China Seismological Monitoring Network.

The epicenter, at 23.7 degrees north latitude and 121.7 degrees east longitude, is about 20 km from the nearest coastline and 150 km from Taipei.

There are no reports about casualty.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2007)