China’s maritime survey of an offshore block in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone remains a source of tension Protests in the authoritarian and Communist-ruled Southeast Asian country are rare, and police dispersed the short-lived demonstration Vietnamese police on Tuesday broke up a brief protest outside the Chinese embassy in Hanoi against Beijing’s maritime survey of an…

A Vietnamese fishermen’s group blasted China this week for what it called Beijing’s intrusion into Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea, urging Hanoi at the same time to take a stronger line to defend Vietnam’s interests. In a statement Monday, the Vietnam Fisheries Society called on Vietnam’s leaders “to protest more strongly against China’s…

At least three political prisoners at a detention center in north-central Vietnam’s Nghe An province have ended their hunger strike over poor conditions after they were given fans, but warned they will resume the protest if they are not provided monthly calls home, family members said Monday. Truong Minh Duc, Dao Quang Thuc, and Nguyen…

A court in northern Vietnam’s Bac Ninh province sentenced a local activist to 30 months in jail on Tuesday for “causing public disorder” at a toll-booth set up under Vietnam’s controversial Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme, which has drawn protests around the country, sources said. Ha Van Nam had gone to the Pha Lai toll station on…

2018 Report on International Religious Freedom: Vietnam JUNE 21, 2019

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Global Human Rights and Co-Chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, welcomed today’s release of the State Department’s annual International Religious Freedom Report. “The State Department’s annual report on religious freedom is critical for the shaping of U.S. policy and priorities,” said…

Today, June 20th, marks World Refugee Day. According to just released data by UNHCR, there are more than 70 million displaced persons around the world. Half of them are children, and in 2018, 13.6 million people were newly displaced. When the world is seeing historic levels of displacement, we have the opportunity to help. Strengthening…

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Three Thai policemen approached Vietnamese refugee Nguyen Van Chung at his home in Bangkok in January and asked him whether he was in touch with another Vietnamese man, Truong Duy Nhat, who had fled to Thailand. Chung said no, he had never met Nhat, a writer and critic of Vietnam’s communist government…

The U.S. voiced strong concern in May at a growing crackdown over the last two years on dissent in Vietnam, and has urged the one-party communist state to free all political prisoners now held in the country’s jails, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday. Speaking in an interview with RFA’s Vietnamese Service, Scott Busby—deputy…

Authorities in Vietnam Tuesday tried and sentenced a group of 15 protesters who demonstrated against a solid waste treatment plant last year in Quang Ngai province. The protest erupted in September 2018 after residents of La Van village in the province’s Duc Pho district got wind that the Duc Pho domestic solid waste treatment plant…