In the sixteenth century, the world had little knowledge about Southeast Asia. Western merchants and sailors of that time called the sea, which is encompassed by the present-day Southeast Asian countries, the “South China Sea” to refer to the enclosed sea basin and its location in relation to the surrounding countries lying to the north of Australia, east of India, and south of China.
Notably, ancient Chinese historical documents called the sea 交阯洋 (Giao Chỉ Dương), which means the Sea of Jiaozhi or Jiaozhi Sea and that, Jiaozhi is an ancient name of Vietnam. Other lesser known names include Champa Sea or Sea of Cham, after the maritime kingdom that flourished between the seventh and sixteenth centuries.
In this modern era, as human civilization evolved towards a multi-faceted global collaboration, the international community, since the 20th century, has geographically formed a sub-region in Asia to address mankind’s need. This region was officially named Southeast Asia and consists of Burma, Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
Southeast Asia represents approximately 600 million people who have, in a joint effort, made unique and original contributions to modern civilization in many aspects, including culture, science, education, economics, politics, etc. In addition to the above, these are facts:
1. The United Nations has officially recognized the region and named it “Southeast Asia”.
2. The countries of Southeast Asia encompass almost the entire South China Sea with a total coastline measuring approximately 130,000 kilometers (81,250 miles) long; whereas the Southern China’s coastline measured about 2,800 kilometers (1,750 miles) in length.
3. Freedom of navigation on the sea is not restricted to a specific country. It is a common heritage of mankind and has actually been used by the international community for centuries as the second most important water channel in the world.
Join the campaign to ask the Presidents and Prime Ministers of 11 countries of Southeast Asia, the President of United Nations Atlas of the Oceans, and the CEOs and Presidents of 12 geographic organizations around the world to change the name “South China Sea” to “Southeast Asia Sea”.
Sign the petition and your action will forever be remembered in the modern history of Southeast Asia.
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- Petition texts in different languages (Kiến nghị được dịch ra một số ngôn ngữ):
English French Filipino German Hindi Indonesian Japanese Japanese (.pdf)
Korean Netherlands Polish Portuguese Russian Thailand (.pdf) Turkish
Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt) Spanish
- Addressee List (danh sách các nơi nhận kiến nghị): CLICK HERE
- Báo cáo việc đệ trình hơn một vạn chữ ký đầu tiên: BẤM VÀO ĐÂY
- Submission of the first 10,000+ signatures: CLICK HERE
- How to sign the Petition if you live outside the US: CLICK HERE
- Hướng dẫn ký tên dành cho quý vị ở các quốc gia ngoài Hoa Kỳ: HƯỚNG DẪN
We need your help to translate the petition texts (the background and the letter) into other languages: Cambodian, Laotian, Burmese, Brunei, Malaysian, Español, Italian, Chinese, and others. - please email us at NTHFoundation@yahoo.com - Thank you.
