—Marking the 50^th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), an internationally known human rights leader in the U.S. Congress, introduced his Vietnam Human Rights Act, HR 3122.

The House of Representatives has passed Smith’s Vietnam Human Rights Act five times—as H.R.2833 in 2001;  H.R.1587 in 2004;  H.R.3096 in 2007;  H.R.1410 in 2012, and;  H.R.1897 in 2013.

But each time, the Senate failed to act on it. 

“Vietnam’s Communist government wants a closer relationship with the United States, but its trade and labor practices hurt American workers and its secret police jail anyone who challenges its authoritarian rule,” said the top lawmaker on the congressional foreign affairs committee.

“If there is to be a closer alignment of American and Vietnamese interests, we need to see change and a freer Vietnam. Any closer strategic partnership should come with conditions—free speech, religious freedom, and fair trade for a start.

“I introduce the Vietnam Human Rights Act to ensure these fundamental democratic priorities are part of any U.S. diplomacy with Vietnam,” said Smith who has led several human rights missions to that country and held more than a dozen hearings on human rights and labor abuses in Vietnam. 

With fair trade elevated as a key national security, Smith is resolute and determined to see the House, and ultimately the Senate, pass the long-overdue human rights reform bill in this congress. 

“My legislation will set human rights and fair trade priorities for U.S.-Vietnam relations and grant the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, the authority to sanction Vietnamese officials who are complicit in torture and the systematic suppression of religious freedom.” 

Smith, who serves as the co-chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, also noted that “the ties between the Communist leadership in Hanoi and Beijing have deepened in recent years. 

“We cannot trust Vietnam as a strategic partner when Vietnamese Party leaders are co-opted and corrupted by their ties to Beijing,” Smith said. He called on the Vietnamese Communist government to sever ties with the Chinese Communist Party if it wants a closer alliance with the United States.

Among other provisions, Smith’s Vietnam Human Rights Act would:

•  Set diplomatic priorities for U.S. foreign policy, including expansion of labor rights and the barring of forced labor-made goods from Vietnam entering the United States.
•    Authorize the Secretary of State to take steps to address censorship of the internet, as Vietnam has one of the world’s most restrictive internet environments.
•  Require the State Department to report on concrete progress it has made in addressing human rights abuses, including protect women and girls from sex and labor trafficking;
•  Allow the Secretary of State to sanction Vietnamese officials complicit in human rights abuses, and;
•  Urge the U.S. government to protect American citizens and businesses from cyber-espionage and transnational repression conducted by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security.

In addition to his five comprehensive human rights bills that have passed the House, Smith is also the author of three other House-passed resolutions, promoting human rights and the rule of law in Vietnam and seeking freedom for democracy advocates, religious freedom leaders and prisoners of conscience unjustly jailed by the Vietnamese government (H.Res.243; H.Con.Res.320; H.Con.Res.378). 

Smith has held 14 hearings on human rights violations in Vietnam on: June 7, 2018; May 25, 2017; June 22, 2016; May 10, 2016; June 17, 2015, June 4, 2013; May 15, 2013; April 11, 2013; Feb. 8, 2012; Jan. 24, 2012; March 29, 2006; Feb. 28, 2006; June 20, 2005, and Nov. 8, 1995.

###