A disturbing synchronization is emerging in Vietnam’s policy planning, revealing a shift toward deep social engineering.
On one hand, Hanoi is proposing to handpick an “elite” workforce right from birth; on the other, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is pushing to score and classify citizens based on digital behavior.
When these two puzzle pieces are joined, the picture of a society stratified and surveyed from cradle to grave, mirroring the Chinese model becomes unmistakably clear.
The government’s plan to build an “elite human resources” program evokes the concept of state-directed class filtering. Citizens are placed into state filters from the start, selecting who is deemed a “red seed” for special treatment.
As these individuals mature, they fall into a second net: the MPS’s citizen scoring system via the VNeID application. The proposal to classify citizens as “positive,” “basic,” or “unranked” completes a closed loop of control.
If “elite” selection is discrimination at the starting line, “citizen scoring” is the mechanism of reward and punishment at the finish line. This erodes the constitutional principle that “all citizens are equal before the law,” replacing rights with privileges granted only to those who satisfy the algorithms of the security apparatus.
Vietnam appears to be importing this governance technology almost verbatim from Beijing. But beyond the social implications, there is a critical question of national security: Who provides the hardware and writes the algorithms?
Given Vietnam’s tradition of “leapfrogging” with cost-effective technology, there is a near-certainty that the backbone of this system relies on Chinese technology. In the context of modern cyber warfare, voluntarily depending on a neighbor’s tech for a national database is akin to a bloodless surrender of sovereignty.
When the biometric data fingerprints, irises, faces, and, most critically, the DNA of 100 million Vietnamese reside on servers potentially accessible via backdoors, Vietnam puts its future autonomy at risk.
The mass collection of DNA is particularly alarming given global concerns about the weaponization of genetic data. If Vietnam’s national genetic profile is leaked or sold to a biotech superpower like China, the long-term biological security of the population could be compromised.
Even if one ignores the Orwellian implications, the project faces a hard economic wall in sufficient energy supplies. The MPS envisions a massive National Data Center to process AI and Big Data for the entire population.
Such infrastructure requires electricity on a gigawatt scale comparable to the output of a nuclear power plant. Yet, Vietnam is in the throes of an energy crisis, with the industrial north suffering from rolling blackouts and factories struggling to operate.
Where will the MPS find 2 gigawatts of power to feed this “digital governance machine”? Will they cut power to households and manufacturing sectors to prioritize police servers?
In the US, wealthy communities protest data centers for their resource drain. In Vietnam, the security apparatus sketches “super projects” while ignoring the energy equation, revealing either macroeconomic ignorance or a project designed primarily for rent-seeking and budget extraction.
This massive undertaking is being pushed as an “urgent” requirement, bypassing rigorous parliamentary debate. It represents the tactic of turning “jungle law” into legal regulation.
But why is an issue affecting human rights, national security, and energy resources being fast-tracked without proper legislative oversight? Is there an external deadline forcing Vietnam to integrate its data into a regional surveillance grid?
By constructing this digital leviathan, the MPS is creating a “state within a state.” It is a gamble where the Vietnamese people lose on all fronts: political freedom is suffocated by algorithms, the budget is drained for non-productive control and national security is left vulnerable to foreign interference.
Vietnam is attempting to build a 21st century digital dictatorship on a 20th century energy grid, using technology that may ultimately serve a foreign master.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, widely known as Mother Mushroom, is a Vietnamese blogger, human rights advocate and former prisoner of conscience. She is the founder & executive director of WEHEAR, a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to empowering women, supporting exiled activists and advancing independent human rights reporting.