The Obama administration expressed concern on Thursday about Vietnam’s “backsliding” on human rights and asserted that advancing individual freedoms is key to US policy in Asia.
One example cited is Hanoi’s treatment of bloggers who have faced prosecution under national security laws. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Dan Baer told a congressional panel that Vietnam’s authoritarian government is rightly proud of expanding Internet use, but it has diminished the value by curbing free exchange of ideas. Baer described those national security laws as draconian.
US senators urged the administration to emphasise the promotion of human rights and democracy as part of its strategic pivot to Asia, which has primarily been cast as an attempt to increase America’s military presence and boost trade in response to China’s rise.
“What would set us apart from authoritarian competitors and would lay the groundwork for a truly American legacy in East Asia is a strong commitment to advancing individual freedoms,” said Republican Senator Marco Rubio.
Vietnam is one focus of Washington’s outreach but Hanoi’s poor human rights record has made that awkward. Vietnam began opening its economy in the late 1980s and wants to integrate with the world, but it remains a one-party state with strict controls on freedom of speech and political expression. Activists, including bloggers, are routinely arrested and imprisoned.
“The government needs to come around to seeing that the Internet penetration they are proud of isn’t fully valuable without people being able to exchange ideas,” said Baer, whose portfolio covers human rights, democracy and labour standards. He also noted that Vietnam’s progress of a few years ago in religious freedom has stagnated.
There’s been some brighter news. Hanoi freed American-Vietnamese democracy activist Nguyen Quoc Quan in January and US-trained human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh in February. That progress, however, has been overshadowed by recent convictions of dozens of other Vietnamese activists who have recent stiff jail terms.