Vietnam Free Expression Newsletter No. 29/2024 – Week of July 23-29

The Unjust Sentencing of Vietnamese Energy Expert Ms. Ngô Thị Tố Nhiên. Vietnam Climate Defenders Coalition; 2024-07-26. In recent years, many other organizations working on environmental and energy issues in the country have similarly been closed down or seen their operations severely curtailed. Nhien’s arrest and subsequent sentencing is the latest in the alarming escalation of Vietnam’s crackdown on climate activists and energy experts who have leading the country’s shift away from coal and fossil fuels.

Submission to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ahead of the Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue. Human Rights Watch; 2024-07-28. It is unclear what specific human rights issues Australia raised in previous dialogues and whether the Australian government set up verifiable benchmarks with Vietnam during its previous annual bilateral rights dialogue. We urge the Australian government to press for clear, concrete, and measurable benchmarks for progress in these five priority areas, laying out consequences for bilateral relations should these violations continue to go unaddressed. Australia’s failure to do so will result in this year’s dialogue amounting yet again to a box-ticking exercise, in which Australia will continue to serve only as a bystander to Vietnam’s intensifying repression.

Human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap faces extradition to Vietnam by Thai authorities based on trumped up terrorism charges; Frontline Defenders; 2024-07-25. On 15 July 2024, Vietnamese human rights defender Y Quynh Bdap’s extradition inquiry was postponed by the Bangkok Criminal Court to the 1st and 19th of August 2024. This was following his arrest on 11 June 2024 due to ‘overstaying his visa’, putting him at risk of deportation to Vietnam, where he could be subjected to severe persecution. He is currently detained at the Bangkok Remand Prison pending the extradition trial requested by the Vietnamese Government. Y Quynh Bdap is a Vietnamese human right defender and a prominent member of the Ede ethnic group, advocating for religious freedom among minority ethnic groups.

VIETNAM IN THE WORLD

Exclusive: US, Vietnam discuss supplying Hanoi with C-130 military transport planes, sources say. Reuters; 2024-07-25. The United States and Vietnam are discussing the sale of Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules military transport planes to Hanoi, two people familiar with the discussions said, in a sign of closer security cooperation between the two former foes. The talks could lead to a supply agreement this year, the sources said, in what would represent Vietnam’s largest military deal since it said publicly at the end of 2022 that it intended to diversify its defence supplies, which have for decades relied heavily on Russian gear.

Blinken pays respects in Vietnam after death of Communist Party leader. Reuters; 2024-07-27. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Vietnam on Saturday to pay his respects following the death of Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, underlining warmer ties between the countries a half-century since they fought a brutal war. Blinken arrived in Hanoi late on Saturday after attending a regional summit in Laos and visited the family home of Trong, a Marxist-Leninist ideologue who as party chief was Vietnam’s most powerful figure for 13 years. He died last week aged 80. Trong’s “bamboo diplomacy” trod a delicate balancing act between rival superpowers the United States and Communist neighbour China, helping to elevate Vietnam’s ties with its two biggest trade partners.

International protests against Ngo Thi To Nhien’s sentence ahead of EU high representative’s visit to Vietnam. BBC Vietnamese; 2024-07-29. The Vietnam Climate Protection Alliance, Project 88 and several other international organizations recently issued a statement calling on the Vietnamese government to immediately release Ms. Ngo Thi To Nhien and other environmental activists “who are being unjustly detained.” The call was made ahead of the official visit to Vietnam by Mr. Josep Borrell Fontelles, Vice President of the European Commission (EC), High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, scheduled to take place from July 29-31. According to sources from Project 88—a non-governmental organization working in the field of human rights advocacy for Vietnam—Ms. To Nhien was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in a secret trial on June 27.

US Delays Decision on Vietnam’s Market Economy Status. Bloomberg; 2024-07-25. The announcement of the Biden administration’s decision on whether to classify Vietnam as a market economy, a step that could boost the Southeast Asian nation’s exports, has been extended by a week and will be taken by Aug. 2. The delay on the Commerce Department ruling, previously expected to be made public by July 26, was confirmed by an agency spokesperson in an e-mailed response to questions from Bloomberg News. The US currently classifies Vietnam as a “non-market economy,” which can be disadvantageous to Vietnamese exporters during anti-dumping petitions.

ADDITIONAL NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Vietnam’s direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) decree could catalyze a new era for renewable energy. IEEFA; 2024-07-29. On July 3, 2024, the Government of Vietnam issued its long-awaited decree permitting direct power purchase agreements (DPPAs) for renewable energy between private project developers and private energy consumers. An extraordinary feature of the decree grants permission for entirely privately developed, owned, and operated transmission lines. This provision could allow the development of large-scale solar or wind farms at remote sites to supply industrial consumers directly. This landmark legislation could ignite a new wave of rapid renewable energy development in Vietnam. However, given Vietnam’s expanded coal imports and mining, it is unlikely that DPPAs alone can save Vietnam’s faltering energy transition.

Vietnam former Public Security minister To Lam gains power as acting general secretary, president. VOA News; 2024-07-27. Experts say Vietnamese President To Lam, now also Vietnam’s acting general secretary, has used the country’s anticorruption campaign to oust political rivals and is shifting from Hanoi’s tradition of collective leadership toward a more authoritarian regime. Lam, a former public security minister, had been named president in May and took on the new post earlier this month after the death of 80-year-old General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

The Intensifying Impacts of Upstream Dams on the Mekong. The Diplomat; 2024-07-27. The Mekong Delta of Vietnam stands to be most in danger in the time of accelerating and intersecting impacts from climate change and hydropower. For this reason, Mekong Environment Forum, an NGO based in Can Tho City, calls for cross-border collaboration and coordination to promote responsible, transparent, and sustainable use of the shared water resources in the Mekong basin. As a downstream victim, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, like many Cambodian riverine communities and wetlands, stands to be most in danger in the time of accelerating climate change and hydropower impacts.

Vietnam allows big companies to buy clean energy directly to meet their climate targets. Associated Press; 2024-07-24. Vietnam will let electricity-guzzling factories buy electricity from wind and solar power producers, helping big companies like Samsung Electronics meet their climate targets and relieving pressure on the country’s overstrained grid. The government decree allowing Direct Power Purchase Agreements, or DPPAs, was approved earlier this month. It lifts a regulation requiring all consumers of power to rely only on the state-run utility Vietnam Electricity, or EVN, and its subsidiaries, which distribute electricity at rates fixed by the government. Foreign investors that are vital to Vietnam’s ascent as a major exporter had been clamoring for such a change.