Trump administration’s lack of emphasis on human rights helping Vietnam to crack down on dissidents

A crackdown on communist Vietnam’s increasingly vocal dissidents has become the biggest in years and activists say authorities have been emboldened by the Trump administration’s lack of emphasis on human rights.

“U.S. President Donald Trump’s early decision to drop the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal also removed a clear incentive for Hanoi to show a better rights record,” they said. The U.S. State Department, however, said it continues to insist that better bilateral ties will depend on Hanoi’s progress on human rights.

Vietnam has stepped up measures to silence bloggers and critics whose voices over issues such as a steel mill’s toxic spill last year have been amplified by social media in a country that is among Facebook’s top 10 by users.

At least 15 people have been arrested so far in 2017 – more than in any year since a crackdown on youth activists in 2011 – according to a Reuters tally of arrests for anti-state activities reported by local and national authorities. Four dissidents — a pastor, an engineer, a journalist and a lawyer – were arrested last week.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

“Civil society and the democracy and human rights movement increased quite a lot in the last few years and with …read more