A paleomagnetic study of Early Cretaceous redbeds from Hainan Island, South China, reveals a pre-folding remanence from six sites, with a mean direction of D=4.3¿, I=41.8¿, k=51.5, &agr;95=9.4¿. The results suggest that Hainan Island may have been rotated ~10¿ counterclockwise about a vertical axis since the Early Cretaceous. This rotation is likely to have occurred during the mid-Tertiary, when large scale left-lateral motion occurred along the Red River Fault as a result of the indentation of the Indian Plate into Eurasia causing extrusion of the Indochina Block, and opening of the South China Sea. A comparison of Early Cretaceous paleomagnetic results from South China indicates that local rotations are widespread in the western part of the South China Block. Such rotations have to be taken into account when examining pre-Cenozoic tectonic kinematics of South China, and constructing apparent polar wander path(s) for the region. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1995