As President Trump begins a two-day visit to Vietnam on Friday, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) released a letter urging the President to address Vietnam’s “dismal human rights record” by making any expansion of U.S. economic and strategic cooperation contingent upon concrete improvements in human rights. The bipartisan letter was signed by 20 Republican and Democratic members of the House of Representatives, including Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“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.” Read the letter to President Trump here.

“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,” Smith said.

The letter included a list of 105 known religious and political prisoners and urged the President to raise specific cases, such as those of human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, Buddhist leader Thich Quang Do, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh and others from Vietnam’s diverse religious and ethnic communities—Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, Khmer Krom, Montagnard, Hmong, Hoa Hao and Cao Dai. Read the letter here.

Smith raised the case of Nguyen Van Dai and other political prisoners with the White House before the scheduled trip. 

Last year, Smith held a hearing with Vu Minh Khanh, Nguyen Van Dai’s wife, who urged the then-Obama Administration to raise the case of her husband. Nguyen Van Dai is one of the most courageous advocates for religious freedom and human rights in Vietnam; he has been beaten and detained now without charge for too long.  He should be immediately released.  Smith first met with Nguyen Van Dai on a trip to Vietnam in 2005.

U.S. interests in a better business climate, fairer trade, a free internet, investor confidence, and civil society development are all directly related to improving Vietnam’s dismal human rights record and improvements in the rule of law.  Failing to press for real and concrete improvements in these areas underestimates U.S. leverage in discussions, and will disappoint the Vietnamese youth.  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.”

Smith is the co-chair of the bipartisan Vietnam Human Rights Caucus.  He has chaired over a dozen hearings on human rights and rule of law conditions in Vietnam.