In recent weeks there has been a slew of repression against dissent in Vietnam. The government of Vietnam does not seem to relent its efforts as its rolling crackdown on dissent continues with more arrests of dissidents and draconian measures against basic freedoms. This article by Stewart Rees is published by The Diplomat. Here is an excerpt:

On July 20, 51-year old Nguyen Van Lam became the latest Facebook user in Vietnam to be jailed for posting what judges deemed to be “anti-state” content on the social media platform. Lam was accused of sharing articles and livestreams that criticized the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) and called for multi-party democracy.

It has been a dispiriting couple of weeks for proponents of human rights in Vietnam. On July 6, the activist Do Nam Truong became the seventh person to be arrested during a week-long flurry of activity against critics of the regime. On July 9, Pham Chi Thanh, co-founder of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), was handed a five-and-a-half year jail sentence for writing articles critical of the VCP.

Judges have had a busy year sentencing IJAVN journalists. In January, three IJAVN members were imprisoned for writing 36 articles that the authorities deemed hostile to the party. Le Huu Minh Tuan and Nguyen Tuong Thuy each received 11 year prison sentences, while Pham Chi Dung was sentenced to 15 years. Unsurprisingly, Vietnam continues to be ranked 175th in the world for press freedom out of 180 countries, according to Reporters Without Borders.

Read the full article here.

Proponents of an EU trade pact said it would nudge one-party Vietnam towards greater respect for human rights. The evidence so far points in the other direction.