Vietnam Free Expression Newsletter No. 25/2022 – Week of June 20-26

Hmong Christian Family Loses Citizenship Rights due to Faith. Persecution.org; June 22, 2024: Officials in Nghe An province, Vietnam stripped ethnic Hmong Christian Xong Ba Thong and his family of citizenship rights on June 4. This declaration comes after years of officials trying to coerce Mr. Thong and his family to stop practicing their Christian faith. The Hmong family converted to Christianity five years ago after listening to radio broadcasts. Since 2019, officials have demanded the renunciation of their faith. Despite Mr. Thong and his family’s official acceptance into the state-registered Vietnam Evangelical Church (Northern) General Assembly in April, officials continued to pester them. In an attempt to persuade Mr. Thong to leave Christianity, local officials claimed that it is illegal to practice another religion. Similar assertions have surfaced in nearby villages. One statement reads, “families are to abide by the law and…not to follow other religions but only the long-standing beliefs and customs of the Hmong people.”

Behind Vietnam’s anti-fake news decree, a campaign against dissent. Rappler.com; June 20; 2022: The Vietnam Anti-Fake News Center has, to date, been the largest-scale top-down initiative in correcting false or wrong information in the country. It does so by adapting its fact-checking method to the realities of a media environment where news organizations come under the state. According to Minh Le, vice president of the Vietnam News Agency, Vietnam has not had independent and professional fact-checking organizations similar to those found in other countries. The center works under the Authority of Broadcasting & Electronic Information of Vietnam, which falls under the Ministry of Information and Communications. The center’s website categorizes the false information under eight topics, from policy and law to disasters and epidemics. These topics remain unelaborated, however.

Don’t build highway through southern Vietnam biosphere: UNESCO. Phuoc Tuan, Phan Anh, VN Express; June 21, 2022: Dong Nai has asked for adjustments to the plan [to build a highway through the area], expressing concern that the constructions would encroach on and impact its biosphere reserve negatively. The Dong Nai Culture-Nature Reserve, the core area of the Dong Nai Biosphere Reserve, spans 100,000 hectares and is part of the Truong Son ecosystem. It was named a world biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 2011. Dong Nai has the largest forest coverage in southeast Vietnam – 169,000 hectares. Of nearly 8,000 readers who’d responded to a VnExpress survey as of Tuesday evening, 83 percent disapproved of the highway and only 11 percent supported it.

China’s drills on Vietnam’s Paracel Islands a sovereignty violation. Tien Tam, VN Express; June 23, 2022: Responding to another question about Japanese media reports that said China plans to create “internal waters” on the South China Sea, [Le Thi Thu Hang, foreign ministry spokesperson] said “Vietnam believes that countries share a common desire and goal to maintain and foster peace, stability and cooperation for development in the East Sea, as well as resolving conflicts in accordance with international law and UNCLOS.” Vietnam affirms its sovereignty over the Paracel and Spratly islands in accordance with international law, as well as the sovereignty, sovereignty rights and jurisdiction rights on sea regions as determined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), she said. On June 18, the Sankei had reported that China was trying to establish its “internal waters” in the South China Sea and forbade foreign vessels from entering them, but the paper did not mention specifics.

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