Hoang Thi Minh Hong

Hoang Thi Minh Hong is an environmental activist and leader of the climate change movement in Vietnam. Hong was motivated to become an environmental advocate after a 1997 trip to Antarctica; she was the first Vietnamese national to achieve the feat.

In 2013, Hong founded the Center of Hands-on Action and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE), an organization that advocates for action on climate change, the environment, and wildlife protection. CHANGE is a member of the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance, an advocacy coalition that was forcibly disbanded after four of its leaders were imprisoned on false charges of tax evasion between 2021-2022.

CHANGE took an activist approach to its work on climate change, educating the public about the harmful effects of coal and mobilizing communities to stop the construction and financing of new coal-fired power plants. In 2017, for example, the organization spearheaded a petition to stop the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Vietnam’s Long An province, which gained over 15,000 signatures and was widely shared on social media. Work on the petition, however, was forced to stop after the police intervened. Hong said that “the signatures were planned to be sent to South Korean owners and investors, and the Vietnamese government leaders, but due to police suppression during that time, we decided not to send the petition.” CHANGE’s activism made the organization an enemy of the coal industry. Hong made no secret of this and in an article published in Vietnamese state media, she is quoted as saying the “coal industry is immoral”.

Hong was also part of the inaugural Obama Foundation Scholars cohort in 2018 at Columbia University in New York City.

Hong is the fifth climate activist to be jailed on false charges of tax evasion in the past two years in Vietnam. A report published by Project 88 in April 2023 documents clear evidence that these prosecutions are politically-driven and designed to criminalize climate activism using false charges of tax evasion.

Before her arrest, Hong reported administrative harassment in the form of irregular audits of her organization, spurious inquiries about “money laundering” from her bank, and delays in the approval of CHANGE’s projects. After four of her colleagues were prosecuted and imprisoned for tax evasion between 2021-2, Hong (along with the rest of the NGO community in Vietnam) suddenly learned that local NGOs are, in certain circumstances, liable for paying corporate taxes, even on income that is used for non-profit development projects.

Concerned that she was next in line to be prosecuted, on March 7, 2022, Hong wrote to the tax office seeking guidance. The tax office responded on April 8 with an official interpretation of the law which stated that Hong’s organization was eligible for tax exemption. However, the office also noted that in the event that the organization uses grant money for incorrect purposes, then it would be liable for paying corporate tax. To avoid arrest, in 2022 Hong resigned as the director of CHANGE. After hearing rumors that “my resignation is not enough,” on August 23 she wrote to the state regulator, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), and asked for official permission to close CHANGE. VUSTA, however, denied Hong’s request, and she was unable to formally close CHANGE.