The Vietnamese government is stepping up monitoring of social media as it seeks ways to stifle the voice of independent bloggers and other critics. It says it has already established a “national centre” with the capacity to read and evaluate…
Vietnam is pushing ahead with ratification of the slimmed down TPP, confident that it can reap economic rewards from enhanced trade without the need for radical reform. President Nguyen Phu Trong last week presented the trade pact to the National…
Vietnam is pushing ahead with plans to impose rigid regulation on global technology companies despite warnings the legislation could scare off investors. The government released a draft decree on the implementation of the law which activists fear will be used…
The Communist party has targeted a prominent intellectual for “serious wrongdoing” in what could presage a new drive against liberal thinkers in the leadership. Chu Hao, the head of Tri Thuc Publishing House and a former deputy science minister, faces…
Vietnam has sent one of the country’s best known political prisoners into exile in the United States following an international campaign for her release. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who blogged under the name of Me Nam (Mother Mushroom), was put…
The US Defence Secretary, Jim Mattis is making his second visit to Vietnam in a year – a sign of the country’s growing strategic importance as the contest between Washington and Beijing hots up. The United States is seeking to…
Vietnam has detained and deported a leading human rights official who tried to enter the country to attend a gathering of the World Economic Forum. It also denied a visa to a senior representative of Amnesty International. The moves underline…
Police and protesters have clashed around Highway 1 on the central coastline as a simmering environmental dispute turned violent. Demonstrators are reported to have thrown rocks and taken three officials hostage. Witnesses said the police used batons to beat back…
Security forces have been mobilised in major cities to try to prevent anti-government demonstrations on National Day on Sunday. The government has become increasingly jittery about public manifestations of dissent since large protests swept through Vietnam in June. The Hanoi…
A court in Vietnam has sentenced two Vietnamese-Americans to 14 years in prison for anti-state activities. Ten Vietnamese accomplices also received jail terms of between 5 and 11 years on a charge of helping in a plot to overthrow the…