Representative Chris Smith held a hearing today on the “silent human rights crisis” in Vietnam urging President Trump to condition better U.S.-Vietnam relations on “concrete, verifiable and irreversible” human rights improvements.

     President Trump meets with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at the White House. At the hearing Smith also released a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging him to prioritize religious freedom in Vietnam because of the government’s egregious abuses targeting religious groups. 

     “For too long Vietnam has gotten a free pass on human rights,” said Smith, chairman of the House panel on global human rights. “Diplomats are so focused on the fact that Vietnam is ‘not China’ that this oppressive police state is granted trade and security benefits without condition. President Trump has a real opportunity to bring about tangible reforms in Vietnam if he links better U.S.-Vietnam relations to tangible human rights improvements. This will be warmly welcomed by the Vietnamese people who want the U.S. to be a voice for freedom—because their voice is silenced.” Click Here for Smith’s Statement.

     Last year, Smith held a hearing with Vu Minh Khanh, the wife of Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Dai. At the hearing, entitled “Will President Obama Prioritize the Release of Prisoners of Conscience in Vietnam?,” Vu spoke of her husband’s commitment to religious freedom, human rights and democracy. Smith first met with Nguyen Van Dai on a trip to Vietnam in 2005, two years prior to his first arrest.

     The U.S. State Department has noted that while the normalizing of relations has provided a great economic boom in Vietnam, advances in political liberties, human rights and religious freedoms have not improved. Reporters Without Borders rated Vietnam as 6^th from the bottom, beating mostly notable world pariahs such as Turkmenistan and North Korea and falling behind countries like Yemen and Iran.

     Smith noted the opportunity that President Trump has to change decades of failed U.S. policies by speaking out for the Vietnamese people, the younger generation which seeks rights and freedoms similar to those, “enjoyed by their relatives in California, Virginia, Texas, New Jersey and everywhere these former Vietnamese refugees have flourished.

     “President Trump should pursue religious freedom, internet freedom, independent labor unions and the release of over 100 prisoners of conscience—as a condition of U.S. assistance.  These fundamental freedoms are directly related to U.S. interests in a better business climate, fairer trade, investor confidence, expansion of economic freedom, and civil society development. Failing to press for real and concrete human rights improvements underestimates U.S. leverage and will disappoint the young generation in Vietnam.  It should be clear by now that Vietnam needs the U.S. markets and security commitments much more than the U.S. needs Vietnam’s markets and security cooperation.”

     After the hearing, Smith wrote to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson providing evidence of severe and systematic religious freedom abuses targeting all of Vietnam’s Christian, Buddhist and indigenous religious groups.  The letter urged the Secretary to prioritize this issue in bilateral relations and to hold Vietnamese government officials accountable for abuses by using the tools available in the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, a bill Smith introduced and was passed into law last year.

     At the hearing, Quan Q. Nguyen, the Chairman of Rallying For Democracy in Vietnam, explained through impassioned testimony, delivered by his associate, what it is like to live under the Communist regime, “To the communists, ‘religion is opium’ and they strictly follow that crazy idea! The Hanoi government's policy has always been to repress religious freedom.” Click Here for his full statement.

     Also testifying at today’s hearing was Nguyen Dinh Thang, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Boat People SOS (Click Here for his full statement) and T. Kumar, Director of International Advocacy at Amnesty International (Click Here for his full statement).

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