The detention of an American citizen in Vietnam, arrested while participating in a protest in Ho Chi Minh City, has again drawn international media attention to social unrest in this fast-growing nation of close to 100 million.
The protesters gathered on June 9-11 in several cities, including Hanoi, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Phan Thiet – where rioters burned the provincial People’s Committee building and several vehicles. Many were protesting proposed changes in law to create special economic zones available for a 99-year lease, alarming some Vietnamese who argue Chinese control over land impinges on their sovereignty.
While anti-Chinese sentiment remains high among Vietnamese, land-lease deals involving Chinese companies have caused similar alarm elsewhere, including Kazakhstan in 2016. Fears have also grown in Sri Lanka, where China currently maintains control over the southern port of Hambantota under a 99-year lease. In 2014, Chinese submarines docked in Colombo, where a Chinese firm was building a $1.4-billion port city on reclaimed land.
The crowds reportedly exceeded numbers gathered during the 2016 Formosa fish kill protests and the 2014 riots following China moving an offshore oil rig into the waters of Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone. Ho Chi Minh City saw some of the largest protests, as thousands of protesters converged on the streets, including William Nguyen, 32, a graduate of Yale from Houston, Texas, who is studying public policy at the National University of Singapore. Nguyen had reportedly asked officers to move their police vehicles from the crowd’s path, and then climbed on top of a police car when they refused to move. Nguyen was then dragged away by a group of men and bloodied, according to video footage taken at the scene. Other protesters were reportedly assaulted by police.
Beyond the basic anti-Chinese sentiment and a desire for internet freedom was economic frustration and hope for change through peaceful assembly and protest in a system long deemed corrupt and beholden to Chinese money
Nguyen has since been charged with disturbing the social order, and hundreds of others were detained and later released as part of an investigation launched by the Ministry of Public Security. Several known activists are reportedly being closely watched by security agents placed outside their homes, while others are being rounded up for questioning by authorities and dozens still remain in detention, including Nguyen, who has since apologized on state television.
So who is behind the protests? In a society lacking transparency and scoring low on press freedom (175 out of 180 countries), all sorts of conspiracy theories abound. Some believe the government orchestrated the protests to demonstrate the need for tighter internet security to contain public unrest. Facebook is often the medium of choice for organizing protests, and the protests happened to coincide with the passage of an internet security law just two days after the protests, requiring Facebook and Google to open offices in Vietnam and store data locally on its users which will be accessible to Vietnamese authorities.
Other fingers point to the Viet Tan, or New Viet Revolutionary Party, a US-registered group “with members in Vietnam and around the world, [which] aims to establish democracy and reform Vietnam through peaceful means.” According to the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper, four Vietnamese were arrested in Ho Chi Minh City for disguising themselves as police officers in order to attack protesters and restore public order, and were found carrying knives, screwdrivers, and tear-gas sprayers. So far, the three fake cops have not been linked to the Viet Tan, which Vietnam considers “a terrorist force.” Other protestors have confessed to having been paid to protest.
However, the Vietnamese I spoke to in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City were less concerned about the organizers than the issues being addressed. The issues had been distilled into a simple messages such as “No leasing land to Chinese communists for even one day” and “Cybersecurity law kills freedom,” as most protesters could hardly be blamed for knowing how special economic zones actually worked, were aware that foreign companies can currently lease land for up to 70 years, or knew of the Chinese submarines docking at a port in Sri Lanka controlled by China. As for the new cybersecurity law, many believe the government was only writing into law what it already practices.
But beyond the basic anti-Chinese sentiment and a desire for internet freedom was economic frustration and hope for change through peaceful assembly and protest in a system long deemed corrupt and beholden to Chinese money. While General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong and his officials have prosecuted some notable corporate bigwigs, the party still has a long way to go before the people are convinced that they are active participants in Vietnam’s rapid economic growth of near 7%, and that their land is not being confiscated and sold off to Chinese investors, with all of the proceeds pocketed by unscrupulous Vietnamese government officials.
For now, Vietnam’s National Assembly has overwhelmingly approved the cybersecurity law and Hanoi has chosen to postpone a decision on the land-lease law until October. A survey by Gallup in 2017 revealed that the Vietnamese were the fifth-happiest among nations, with high hopes for economic prosperity in 2018. But many Vietnamese I spoke with will not wait for change, with many moving forward on or making plans to relocate to the US or Australia to pursue higher education or higher paying jobs, having lost all hope of sharing in the latest economic spoils.
Foreigners should not interfer in Vietnam internal affairs, particularly those originating for USA which had slaughtered 15% or 3 million vietnamese autistic and disabled children from agent orange, bombed the country to poverty, etc.
Round up all these foreign agitators who are probably on CIA payrolls.
why do american can seem to be upright and inability not to engage in fake news?
Will participated as a a twitter documentary person in a supposed peaceful protest which is permissible by the Vietnam’s constitution. The plain clothe polices incited the chaos in order to suppress the protest.
The demonstration was for 2 folds: The Vietnamese government tried to pass a cyber-security law, which they did, to give them full access all the accounts of whoever they want. They can put anybody in prison any time for voicing their concern about the inequality/oppression/ etc if the government sense their views as a displeasure of the running communist party. Vietnam placed many people away for 10 years or more in the past 2 years for voicing out concern about environment disasters such as Formosa. Just imagine they take away all the bills of right in the States and you may understand why people had to demonstrate.
Secondly, Vietnam is trying to pass out law to create the "Special Economic Zones’ in Vietnam. This law would allow other countries, very likely just China, to have their own rules and governance inside Vietnam. The people who are living in those land now will most likely be forced out with dirt cheap compensation to start their lives else where. Don’t forget, China and Vietnam had always been nemesis for thousands of years. Why the Vietnamese government even thought about passing of this law is beyond the means of reasoning. It is the sign of selling Vietnam and betrayed our people- hence the protest.
There will always be more and larger protests when the people fundamental rights are perturbed.
if you are the same lyhn dyhn that writes on""" ron inz review ""you should know that the rulling class in vietnam during the pre american war and during and french rule was ethnic chinese. and that the refugees[[us bound]]. promosed to return to vietnam. and i know as i lived in huntington bch ca where they bought all the existing bus and turned garden grove blvd and westminster bld into ""seoul east""! they emptied the us. small bus adm buget for yrs 1975-76 . they also bought the entire shrimp fleet base in texas/ and they printed counterfiet vietnamese paper money to inflate and ruin the economy.they gave it away in the store to vietnames to send home. they even had turf wars over power and in ""huang my"" restaurant killed 8 people in a gun battle. so i’m sure as hell it is the cia working with american born chinese vietnames to disrupt vietnam .why?? to stifle chinas sucess.
Joeseph Stalin you are speaking of nothing but non-senses.
As a foreigner living in Vietnam I and others will do whatever we want. And don’t forget the leading criminal Organisation in Vietnam is the Vietnamese communist party, ask general giap