Human rights dialogues (between several foreign states) are important events to show to the world that Vietnam is taking its international commitments seriously. Yet, the US - Vietnam human rights dialogue hosted in May 2019 shows that Vietnam never meant to implement that to which they have agreed.

On May 12, 2019, both Le Cong Dinh - a prominent lawyer and one of the most famous political dissenters in Vietnam, who served five years of imprisonment and three years of probation for peacefully practicing freedom of expression - and religious leader Hua Phi were arbitrarily blocked from leaving their houses, even though they were invited by the delegation from the US Department of State.