Reports that China has installed advanced missile systems in the Spratly islands come as a further blow to Vietnam’s attempts to assert its territorial claims in the area. Intelligence reports quoted by US media indicate that China has set up…
Vietnam’s relations with Europe look set to deteriorate still further following allegations about the involvement of Slovakia in the abduction of a Vietnamese official last year. The Slovakian foreign ministry has denied knowingly assisting in the kidnap but warned that…
The trial has begun in Berlin of a member of the kidnap gang allegedly sent by the Vietnamese government to Germany last summer to seize a fugitive official. Prosecutors are presenting evidence of a Cold War style intelligence operation to…
The police broke up an attempted demonstration by supporters of pro-democracy activists, as a major political trial got underway in Hanoi. Police and plainclothes agents blocked the march by a small group of protesters, who carried placards saying that democracy…
Ethnic minority Christians in the north-west of the country have been attacked and badly beaten – the latest indication that religious persecution is growing in Vietnam, according to human rights activists. Reports said that 24 newly converted Hmong Christians had…
The spectacular fall from grace of the former politburo member, Dinh La Thang, appeared to be complete in January when he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for economic crimes. But now the former technocrat, once seen as a…
Germany is continuing to step up pressure on Vietnam nearly eight months after a fugitive Vietnamese official was abducted from a park in Berlin. The Attorney-General’s office said it had begun an investigation into the deputy head of Vietnamese intelligence,…
A former head of the police’s high-tech crime unit has been arrested on charges of involvement in a major online gambling ring. The prosecution of Major-General Nguyen Thanh Hoa threatens to further undermine the credibility of the police in a…
The blogger and author, Pham Doan Trang, has been tracked and harassed by the police for years – forced into an exhausting cat and mouse game for speaking out openly on subjects considered sensitive by the Communist party. Now the…
A court in Vietnam has sentenced a blogger and environmental campaigner to 14 years in prison – one of the heaviest sentences for an activist in recent years. The punishment reveals the Communist party leadership’s sense of alarm over organised…