The Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy will convene an online conference on “Vietnam and Non-Market Economy.” Registration is open at http://www.bit.ly/VNNME.

Vietnam’s socialist-oriented economy does not meet many of the criteria for a market economy.”

— Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, July 4, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Last September, on the eve of President Joe Biden's visit to Hanoi, where he and Vietnamese Communist Party’s Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong elevated the U.S.-Vietnam relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) formally asked U.S. Department of Commerce to remove it from the list of non-market economies on the grounds that it had made economic reforms in recent years.

The SRV has continued to lobby Washington intensely to remove its designation of non-market economy (NME). "Of course, we want Vietnam to be removed from the US list of non-market-economy countries," Vietnam's ambassador to the United States, Nguyen Quoc Dung, said at a conference organized by Washington-based CSIS in January.

The SRV Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh discussed the issue with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen during a meeting in Hanoi last July, and again with Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in Washington last September. Vietnam has also engaged a lobbying firm in Washington to help it win congressional support for a status upgrade.

Civil society groups such as the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy have led an effort to counter this push from the communist country. They wrote to Secretary Raimondo and congressional offices in support of keeping the NME designation. The letter to the Commerce Secretary alleges that Vietnam’s socialist-oriented economy does not meet many of the criteria for a market economy. One such criteria, Vietnam’s currency convertibility, remains an issue since the Trump Administration, reinforced with Vietnam's recent placement on the Department of the Treasury’s “watch list” for currency manipulation.

Wage rates in Vietnam are not determined by free bargaining between labor and management, the letter argues. Workers cannot form independent unions, and the state maintains control over the only trade union available, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor. Foreign investment in certain sectors is restricted or even prohibited under domestic law.

In communist Vietnam, government ownership and control of production play a significant role in shaping the economy. Vietnam maintains extensive price control across its economy. This intervention influences resource allocation and pricing decisions of enterprises. Policies such as subsidies, tariffs, quotas, licenses, and multi-year economic plans contribute to government intervention in resource allocation.

According to the latest Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Statistics from the website of the US Customs and Border Protection, Vietnam has the highest shipment metrics of goods made with Uyghur forced labor. If removed from the NME designation, Vietnam is likely to become an even larger conduit for Chinese forced-labor products to evade import bans of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. It would also prioritize state-sponsored businesses from Vietnam over Vietnamese American small businesses, still recovering from COVID-19.

As a decision is expected by the end of July, the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy will host an online conference on “Vietnam and Non-Market Economy” on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. The conference speaker is Dr. Chu Nguyen, Associate Professor of Economics and Finance, Chairman of the FAMIS Department, including Accounting, Finance, Economics, Management Information Systems, and International Business, at the University of Houston-Downtown. He served as an Economist and then as the Head of the Economic Analysis and Forecasting Department at the 5th District of the US Federal Home Loan Bank System. Dr. Nguyen is the current President of Southwestern Society of Economists.

Registration is open at http://www.bit.ly/VNNME.

Formed in May 2020, the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy is a coalition of pro-democracy organizations. Its mission is to advocate for democracy in Vietnam. The Alliance is directed by an elected steering committee of 13 organizations. Its activities are coordinated by a coordinator. Its financial administration is through Vietnam Democracy Center, a partner organization with US exempt, 501(c)3 status.

On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, the Vietnamese diaspora will hold a commemoration to call attention to Vietnam's deteriorating human rights condition.

Members of the media and the public are invited to this special commemoration. Online registration is via this link http://bit.ly/49hPQSK.”

— Event organizers

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 10, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, an event will be held at the Caucus Room, in the Cannon House Office Building to call attention to the deteriorating human rights condition in Vietnam. The event will be from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM EST. According to the organizers, "Members of the media and the public are invited to this special commemoration. Online registration is via this link http://bit.ly/49hPQSK."

It will mark the 30th anniversary of a U.S. House-Senate Joint Resolution designating May 11th as Vietnam Human Rights Day, which President Clinton subsequently signed into Public Law 103-258 on May 25, 1994. Since then, the annual commemoration has been a bi-partisan event. As Vietnam experiences a deterioration of human rights, organizers of the event aim to bring to the forefront the repression, particularly of the freedom of expression and internet freedom.

Invited speakers include elected representatives, officials from the State Department, and several international human rights organizations. The Honorable Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights will give the keynote speech. Other speakers include Senator Eric Schmitt, Congresswoman Judy Chu, and USCIRF Commissioner Stephen Schneck. Minister Mu Sochua of the Khmer Movement for Democracy and Deputy Foreigner Minister Moo Zaw Oo of the Myanmar National Unity Government will also give remarks.

The event will end with a panel on the role of youth in human rights and democracy. The panel will feature Anna Kwok, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Democracy Council; Hoang Vi Kha, Executive Director of Viet Toon and Dr. Annika Silva-Leander, Head of North America at International IDEA and Permanent Observer to the United Nations.

The following day, May 15, 2024, will be the Vietnamese diaspora’s Human Rights Advocacy Day. Activists from across the US will descend on Congressional offices of their representatives and senators to promote Vietnam’s human rights. One focus will be the designation of a Country of Particular Concern for Vietnam for having engaged in or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom. The activists will bring attention to Facebook’s alleged collaboration with Vietnamese authorities to suppress the freedom of speech, in contravention of international laws related to large social networks.

This year, the advocacy apparently will also be directed at transnational repression by the Vietnamese authorities to manipulate, influence, and exploit overseas Vietnamese communities. It requests the unconditional release of 299 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, as well as the immediate sanctions of the Minister and the Deputy Ministers of Vietnam's Public Security Ministry for human rights violations based on the Global Magnitsky Act.

The Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy honors the ultimate sacrifice of 5,099 Korean fallen soldiers in the Vietnam War.

We are here to humbly honor the ultimate sacrifice and the indomitable spirit of the Korean people.”

— Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, March 22, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Since 2023, Vietnamese authorities have been embarking on an offensive to get reparations from South Korea for the Vietnam War which ended in 1975. Vietnam’s state-controlled media has been peddling war crimes allegedly committed by Korean soldiers in Vietnam. The Korean Defense Ministry in its response has stated that its records do not support the allegations, and has called for a joint investigation by the Korean and Vietnamese governments.

South Korean troops became some of the first to enter South Vietnam in 1964 and among the last to depart nearly ten years later. The Republic of Korea was the Republic of Vietnam’s second-largest coalition partner, after the US. The South Korean Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force all participated, under the command of Lieutenant General Chae Myung-shin.

Fifty years later, a group composed of former Republic of Vietnam soldiers and their descendants made a quiet visit to Seoul National Cemetery to pay their respects. On Sunday, March 17, 2024, the group visited the gravesites of the 5,099 fallen soldiers who died to protect the cause of freedom in a foreign land. The inscription on one read, “Because you soldiers rest here, our country stands tall with pride.”

With help from the cemetery officials, the group laid flowers and conducted a formal ceremony. They stood stiffly in the cold winds, in respect and remembrance of the former comrade-at-arms, whose service was seen as essential in stemming the tides of communism in Asia. It did not succeed in Vietnam as South Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975, but it gave the rest of Asia enough time to become resilient economies and democratic societies. For that important cause, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam suffered 254,256 recorded combat deaths between 1960 and 1975.

As members of an alliance advocating for Vietnam’s democracy, the group is also in Seoul in a formal capacity as organizers and facilitators of several conferences on democracy on the side of the Summit for Democracy. This Third Summit, hosted by the Government of South Korea, was from March 18 to 20, 2024. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the group also visited the War Memorial of Korea "to humbly honor the ultimate sacrifice and the indomitable spirit of the Korean people," according to the group's spokesperson.

Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy will organize a hybrid Asia Forum on March 14, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea as a lead-up to the Third Summit for Democracy.

This forum is poised to be a cornerstone event in the Asian democratic landscape.”

— Global Democracy Coalition

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, March 9, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As a pivotal platform in the lead-up to the Third Summit for Democracy, an Asia Forum will be organized on March 14, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea, both in person and online. According to the Global Democracy Coalition, this forum epitomizes Asia’s commitment to democratic values and is poised to be a cornerstone event.

The forum includes two panels, one on “Asia’s Democratic Landscapes: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities” and another on “Narratives and Strategies for Democracy in Asia.” As a dedicated platform for Asian democratic leaders to engage in dialogue and exchange perspectives on democracy, the Asia Forum boasts a list of notable speakers and panelists from Taiwan, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and Vietnam.

The program promises a substantive discussion of the regional perspectives on democracy, exploring opportunities, challenges, and future directions for democratic governance in Asia. The forum’s agenda is multifaceted, aiming to facilitate active participation among Asia’s pro-democracy organizations, policymakers, and advocates while also examining the broader global context.

As the organizer of the event, the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy was formed in the Summer of 2021, after a national referendum of 1.2 million Vietnamese people. The Alliance is composed of a large network of pro-democracy organizations in Vietnam and from around the world. Its coalition aims to advance democracy in Vietnam and the rest of Asia.

The Summit for Democracy is the largest international gathering of governments and nongovernment stakeholders dedicated to promoting democratic renewal and combating authoritarianism. With leaders of more than 110 free countries expected to attend, this year’s Summit will be from March 18 to 20, 2024, and hosted by the Government of South Korea.

A coalition of ten Vietnamese-American groups organized a protest against the Chinese Communist Party and the Vietnamese Communist Party at the APEC Conference.

Asia will be at its best when Asian peoples are free and able to determine their future because historically there has been no better engine of economic growth.”

— Organizing Committee

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 21, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A coalition of ten Vietnamese American groups organized a protest against the Chinese Communist Party and the Vietnamese Communist Party at the APEC Conference in San Francisco on two days last week, November 15 and 16. The organizing committee, led by the group United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, citing atrocities by communism, called for an end to these abuses of human rights.

The US, under two successive administrations, has determined that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] “under the direction and control of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party], has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” The US State Department further called on "all appropriate multilateral and relevant juridical bodies, to join the United States in our effort to promote accountability for those responsible for these atrocities.”

Two years ago, the Uyghur Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC passed a similar judgment that “the CCP has committed genocide, crimes against humanity and torture of Uyghurs and members of other minorities in the Xinjiang region.” It also stated that “Xi Jinping … and other very senior officials in the PRC and CCP bear primary responsibilities for acts that have occurred in Xinjiang.”

On April 2023, the Vietnam Tribunal, another independent juridical body, decided that Pham Van Dong, the former Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) “colluded with a foreign country to jeopardize the independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Vietnam.” The same tribunal determined the VCP committed treason on 63 counts. As Sir Geoffrey has opined, “powerless citizens have more power than they know. The scale of these crimes could allow individuals around the world to act together in pressuring governments so that governments and other international bodies cannot fail to act.”

The protest’s coordinator, Jimmy Phan of the group United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California and a member of Vietnamese Nationalist Party, asserted that “when governments failed to act, it’s our responsibility to hold the CCP and VCP to account for these serious crimes.” Waving flags of the US and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), former allies in the war against communism, Dr. Vuong Pham, President of the Assembly of Vietnamese Veterans, spoke when interviewed, “economic development in communist countries only benefits a few communist party elites, while most of the people suffer. Therefore, we believe in the firmness of our cause and the strength of our conviction. We will continue so that our fallen American and Vietnamese comrades-in-arms will know that we have not given up on our fight or forgotten their sacrifice.”

Other protest participants agreed. On the other side of Moscone Center where APEC was held, hundreds waved flags, shouted slogans, and hung banners such as “Democracy for Vietnam,” “Freedom for Vietnam,” “No to Xi Jinping,” and “No to Vo Van Thuong.” Another member of the organizing committee, Tho Le, Secretary General of the Former Vietnam Armed Forces Alliance, repeated the words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, “The opposite of good is not evil but indifference. Today, we showed that we didn’t stand idly by when evils are welcome with fancy dinners and standing ovations. We call on others to demand that US officials and businesses uphold US and international laws and stop doing business with those regimes which violate these laws.”

Another participant, Chau Phan, a member of the Vietnamese Nationalist Party, was pushed down by pro-CCP demonstrators. Brushing it off, he said, “We are here because of the ideals that this country was built on. We will not back down and give in to the Chinese communists and the Vietnamese communists and their dark vision of humanity. We will not share our destiny with those who committed treason, crimes against humanity and genocide. Instead, we will continue our fight for our children and grandchildren so they will never have to live under the yoke of communism.”

At the same time of the protest, a petition was filed to Hong Kong’s High Court to order the arrest of five US lawmakers who authored the Hong Kong Sanctions Act. Introduced by Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, California Representative Young Kim, Utah Representative John Curtis and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley on November 2, the legislation proposed to sanction Chinese national security officials for allegedly violating human rights.

The protest attracted thousands of people, with coordination between various anti-communism groups. With the belief that “Asia will be at its best when Asian peoples are free and able to determine their future,” the organizing committee asked APEC leaders to stand with them on values such as democracy and human rights, “because historically there has been no better engine of economic growth.” For those who attended, these values such as freedoms of expression and association were not just abstract ideals, but also in full display for the whole world to see during one week in November.

Several Asian American organizations are organizing a large protest at the APEC Conference in San Francisco on November 15 and 16, 2023.

The protest is taking place on November 15, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and November 16, 2023, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. The location of the protest is ... at the corner of 4th and Howard.”

— Organizing Committee

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 6, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Several Asian American organizations are organizing a large protest at the APEC Conference in San Francisco on November 15 and 16, 2023. APEC, or Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim that aims to promote “the well-being of all people and achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth” throughout the region.

In an invitation letter, the organizing committee wrote of universal human rights as intrinsic for such well-being and called for a protest against the Chinese and Vietnamese delegations. It stated, “while we wish for Asia's economy to develop and the vast majority of the people there to participate in that development, our stance is not to accept, welcome or collaborate with those elements which suppress those universal values and commit treason, crimes against humanity, even genocide against their own people.”

This year’s APEC gathering is expected to bring Xi Jinping and Vo Van Thuong, authoritarian leaders of one-party communist China and Vietnam, respectively. Their presence comes at a sensitive time when the United Nations marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and victims commemorate more than 100 million lives lost at the hands of communism.

This is also the first time that Xi, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, visits the US since the COVID-19 pandemic which has taken more than a million American lives. The fentanyl crisis, also originating in China, is killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. According to the latest report by the Department of Defense, the People's Liberation Army, the armed wing of the CCP, is targeting the US with 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030. Many analysts agreed that America’s interests are being threatened by the CCP’s coercive economic tactics, hegemonic ambition, and a disregard for international law.

Speaking for the United Vietnamese American Community of Northern California, one of the nine organizations mobilizing the protest, Mr. Jimmy Phan said, “the Vietnamese communist authorities are not reliable as partner. They are free riders and back stabbers, as evidenced from their recent kowtowing behaviors toward China and Russia, right after the elevation to a comprehensive strategic partnership with the US. Their interest is entirely self-serving and dangerous to American interest.”

The protest is taking place on November 15, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM and November 16, 2023, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. The location of the protest is near the Moscone West Convention Center, at the corner of 4th and Howard, in front of the Children’s Creativity Museum.

The letter ended in the words of Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Vietnamese organizations sent an open letter to President Biden on his upcoming trip to Vietnam.

... the signatories ask that President Biden addresses Vietnam’s human rights situation, especially the plight of those detained for their religious, human rights and democracy advocacy.”

— Letter signatories

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 28, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- On August 25, 2023, 37 Vietnamese organizations signed an open letter to President Biden regarding his upcoming trip to Vietnam. The open letter has four recommendations.

"First, the organizations believe that a successful US-Vietnam partnership requires accountability and mutual benefits. There are widespread reports of serious violations of human rights by the Vietnamese authorities. The letter emphasizes that an agreement to assist Vietnam’s efforts in semiconductor and artificial intelligence is a mistake. It alleges that AI, in the hands of an unchecked totalitarian system, is a tool for control and censorship. According to the open letter, any export of semiconductor technology to Vietnam is possibly destined to China to evade the ban on Chinese chip procurement.

Second, the letter recommends that the United States publicizes and enforces the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act in its dealings with the Vietnamese authorities. This legislation, a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law in December 2012, permanently authorizes the President to impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions based on violations of human rights.

Third, the organizations caution the United States against implicitly recognizing Vietnam's elections as free and fair. According to the signatories, elections in this communist country are not meeting international standards. The issue of free and fair elections is a matter of great importance to the Vietnamese people, in Vietnam and the US. A recent publication of a Free and Fair Election Scorecard gave Vietnam a low score of 27 out of 100 possible points, based on criteria by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Vietnam, a one-party state, is consistently categorized as “not free” and “authoritarian” by many international organizations and governments. The Vietnamese organizations recommend that the US promotes verifiable free and fair elections in Vietnam as a partner in its free and open Indo-Pacific initiative.

Fourth, the signatories ask that President Biden addresses Vietnam’s human rights situation, especially the plight of those detained for their religious, human rights and democracy advocacy. Specifically, they recommend that the US voices its support for freedom of expression and independent labor unions in Vietnam, as conditions for diplomatic upgrade of bilateral relationship."

The 37 signatory organizations are representatives of religious, community, political and civil societies. They include the following:

Advocates for Faith and Justice in Vietnam (AFJV)
Alliance for Democracy in Vietnam
Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy
Assembly for Democracy in VietNam
Antelope Valley Vietnamese Association
Bloc 8406 International
Buddhist Church of America
Dai Viet Nationalist Party
Federation Of Vietnamese American Communities of U.S.A
Florida Việt Báo Newspaper
Free Vietnam Global Network
Interfaith Council of Vietnam, Overseas Office
Institut d'histoire de Cao Dai
Minh Van Foundation
National Organization of Vietnamese American Leaders (NOVAL)
One Bread
Republic of Vietnam Next Generations
Thang Nghia Society
The Greater Philadelphia Vietnamese American Community
The Greater Philadelphia Vietnamese Community Association
The Vietnamese Association of Jacksonville, Florida
United Council of Vietnamese Homeland and Overseas
United Vietnamese American Community of Pennsylvania
Vietnamese American Community of Central Virginia
Vietnamese American Science & Technology Society
Vietnamese Community of Florida
Vietnamese Community of Oregon
Vietnamese Community of Pomona Valley, CA
Viet 2000 Foundation
Vietnamese American Community of the USA
Vietnamese Americans for Human Rights
Vietnam Helsinki HR Committee
Vietnam Human Rights Day May 11 Organization
Vietnam Human Rights Network
Vietnam Democracy Center
Vietnamese Environmental Protection Society
Vietnamese Nationalist Party

WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES, March 29, 2022 -- An online event was organized by the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy, a coalition of Vietnamese pro-democratic organizations, to discuss international response to the recently released judgment by the Uyghur Tribunal. The Conference on the Uyghur Tribunal Judgement was attended by more than 40 legislators and officials from 11 countries, as well as 64 international organizations.

The conference was keynoted by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, formerly of the International Criminal Court, who outlined the principles for the foundation of the Tribunal. It was followed by remarks which outlined commitments from countries around the world.

To the almost 200 attendees, Ms Els Van Hoof, member of Parliament of Belgium, representative of the Christian Democrats and Flemish party and Belgium’s Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke of Belgian resolution on July 21, 20221 which “not only denounce the violation of Uyghur human rights as a crime against humanity but also explicitly recognize that there is a serious risk of genocide." Ms. Van Hoof contributed a component in this resolution towards “strict import restrictions in order to ban goods originating from forced labor from Xinjiang." “This atrocious oppression must stop immediately.”

Ms Nusrat Ghani, member of the UK House of Commons and a former UK Minister, spoke of the need to sanction those Chinese officials who are involved in the incarceration, torture and the genocide of the Uyghur people." She stated, “The Uyghur Tribunal provides not only substantial evidence but also quite a serious determination of genocide which makes it impossible for governments, firms and individuals to now continue to hold the position that they weren't aware what was going on or the evidence does not stack up.”

US Senator Jeff Merkley, Chair of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, thanked “all the members of the Tribunal for your essential work to shed light on the atrocities being carried out in Xinjiang.” Senator Merkley, a co-author of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, asked that “companies that are continuing to produce in that region will quickly work to move out of the region if they cannot utilize a safe harbor in the bill and send a powerful message that the companies themselves will not be complicit in these actions.” The Senator also encouraged, “governments across the globe will do similar actions to what we have just done here in America because it simply is such a more powerful effective strategy if multiple governments engage simultaneously in this similar effort” of enacting legislations against Uyghur forced labor.

Mr. Garnett Genuis, a member of Canadian Parliament and shadow minister for international development and human rights, called on the government of Canada to recognize the Uyghur genocide, passing new tough supply chain slavery legislation, and passing an organ harvesting and trafficking bill.”

Regarding the Uyghur Tribunal Judgment, the Alliance asked that "the PRC gives serious consideration to the voluminous evidence and important judgment by the Uyghur Tribunal. As the true purpose of the Genocide Convention is the prevention of genocides, we urge the governing CCP to do everything in its power to reverse its current policies, which cause deaths and untold sufferings among millions of its citizens. A path of crimes of genocide and against humanity has historically and predictably been both shameful and disastrous for their perpetrators.”

SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 29, 2022  -- On March 3, 2022, the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy held an online conference as part of the Summit for Democracy’s Year of Action. The conference, titled Democracy for Vietnam: Obstacles and Opportunities, included the topics of A Constitutional Framework for A Democratic Future, A People’s Voice: Referendum on the South China Sea, A World’s Alliance: Denouncing A Neighbor’s Genocide and A Nation's Guarantee: Human Rights to Secure and Protect Democracy. It was broadcasted in English and Vietnamese to an audience of almost one thousand in Vietnam.

Speaking about a published A Model Constitution for a Democratic Vietnam, Dr. Nhatthien Nguyen, PhD, President of Vietnam Democracy Center and the conference’s first speaker, remarked: “By advocating for a multi-party system, tightening the amendment process, and getting approval from the citizens, we ensure that our constitution model, with 3.1 million responses with the approval rate of each article [of the model constitution] ranging from 87 to 97%, will be practiced rather than just looking good on paper.”

Mr. Hung Phan, MEd, President of Vietnam Human Rights Day - May 11 Organization, emphasized that “support to democracy and human rights plays a fundamental role in combatting oppression, building democracies, and reducing poverty in all its dimensions.” As human rights can provide a path and a guarantee for democracy, Mr. Phan, the immediate Past President of the Federation of Vietnamese American Communities of the USA, stated, “Vietnam’s democracy should be guided by the principles that human rights are universal, interdependent, and indivisible to gain trust and support from overseas and international communities.”

Mr. Oanh Pham of Thang Nghia Forum summarized the results of a referendum with large civic participation that is unique in a totalitarian state whereas “about 1.2 million Vietnamese have participated … with 95% of them approved, in favor of taking legal action in international courts against China’s aggression in the South China Sea.” “This demonstrates,” per the speaker, “the fundamental and universal human need for a democratic society in which elected leaders listen and carry out the will of the people.”

Recounting a year of activities in bringing the world’s attention to the human rights atrocities in China, Dr. Quoc-Hung Tran, MD spoke of a need for a democratic Vietnam “to form alliances with other free and democratic countries to stop the expansion of totalitarianism in Asia and the rest of the world.” He stated, “Building an alliance against China’s genocide and other crimes against humanity is a part of the defense of democracy.”

The conference put forth three recommendations for the Summit for Democracy and the international community:

1. Direct engagement with Vietnamese people, through civil societies and organizations, as stakeholders and agents of change for a democratic Vietnam.

2. Governmental support for freedom of expression through a free and open internet in Vietnam, with a recognition that Vietnam’s democracy should be guided by the principles that human rights are universal, interdependent, and indivisible.

3. International support for free and fair elections in Vietnam, with the right to run for office and right to nominate candidates with a diversity of ideas and political affiliations.

As Vietnam was not invited to the Summit, these recommendations from the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy will be the only input regarding Vietnam as nations prepare for a second Summit for Democracy later this year.

The conference concluded with a summary statement from its moderator, Ms. Linh Nguyen, JD, President of MV Foundation, “A constitution that enshrines that the communist party as the sole form of government, tramples on human rights and religious freedom. The Vietnamese civilization is grounded on the principles of human rights that everyone has a voice; it must be heard not oppressed or silenced. And human rights is a key ingredient to advance democracy in Vietnam. For our “Đồng Bào” to enjoy democracy, it begins with free and fair elections with the right to run for office and right to nominate candidates with a diversity of ideas and political affiliations. A democratic Vietnam is the very principle on which Vietnam was founded 4900 years ago.”

SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 27, 2022 -- On December 23, 2021, President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law. The legislation, which received widespread bipartisan support in Congress, is an effort to address forced labor in Xinjiang or East Turkestan region. It creates a rebuttable presumption that goods produced in whole or in part in the Xinjiang are produced with forced labor and therefore prohibited from importation.

The Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy, an alliance of several Vietnamese organizations, released a statement today prior to the end of the legislation’s public comment period. The alliance alleges that Vietnam has been importing Xinjiang cotton to supply increased market share, helping China bypassing the US sanction prescribed in the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

According to the World Bank, between 2002 and 2020, China was by far the largest source of garment imports into the US. In 2020, just when the Trump administration started an import ban on all cotton from western China’s Xinjiang, Vietnam suddenly outstripped China as the biggest exporter of garments to the US market, from 16 percent market share the year before.

As of 2019, 85% of cotton grown in China is produced in Xinjiang, constituting approximately 22% of global cotton. In the last several years, China has encouraged the rapid growth of textile and apparel manufacturing in the Uyghur Region. Nonetheless, international shipping records indicate that cotton goods export shipments from the Uyghur Region direct to the United States have nearly ceased altogether in the last two years. The statement suggests that the cotton and cotton-based yarn, textiles, and finished garments grown and manufactured for export in the Uyghur Region must be transported from the region to Vietnam and other locations before being shipped internationally.

While the United States remained the largest consumer of finished apparel from China, the top two destinations (in terms of both value and weight) for China’s export of raw cotton, yarn, and fabric are Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Out of the 53 international intermediary manufacturers that purchase unfinished cotton goods from five leading Chinese manufacturers that have sourced Xinjiang cotton, six are from Vietnam. The Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy cautioned that “several well-known international brands are supplied by those Vietnamese intermediaries and are thus at high risk of having Xinjiang cotton in their supply chains.”

UN Comtrade data reveals that more than half of China’s exports of cotton semi-finished products are destined for countries within Asia, with Vietnam the second most popular destination. Analysis of shipping data suggests that, once there, international intermediary manufacturers produce finished garments from the semi-finished products for export around the world, often with the precise composition of the materials supplied by the suspect Chinese suppliers.

The effect is a “laundering” of Xinjiang cotton—obscuring its movement so that the provenance of a finished garment’s cotton becomes difficult to detect. According to Laura Murphy of the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice: "The benefits of such an export strategy may be clear: the end buyer is no longer directly involved in buying Xinjiang cotton—international brands and wholesalers can buy from factories in third countries that have few visible ties with Uyghur Region-based companies. A stable supply of Xinjiang cotton to the international market is thus guaranteed, even as brands, governments, and consumers increasingly turn away from Xinjiang forced-labor-made goods."

Vietnam is the fourth largest importer of cotton or cotton-mixed products from China between 2016 and 2019 in terms of product value ($20 billion) and second in term of weight (2 billion kg). The country is also the second largest export destinations of semi-finished cotton products from China in terms of value ($7.3 billion) and weight (939.3 million kg).

Vietnam, one of the top imports, is also home to a high number of export-grade apparel manufacturers.

All five Chinese cotton enterprises that have been supplied by the Uyghur Region’s cotton industry, Jiangsu Lianfa Group, Luthai Textile Co., Huafu Fashion Co., Texhong Textile Group, and Weiqiao Textile Co., export a significant number of shipments of cotton goods to Vietnam for intermediary manufacturing. One company, Huafu, has production bases in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Additionally, it has established production facilities in Vietnam. Both Luthai Textile Co. and Texhong Textile Group have also established production bases in Vietnam.

China is also the world’s largest apparel producer. Most of these textiles and apparel are exported to the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Germany, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Vietnam is also a top exporter of textiles.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act creates a rebuttable presumption that goods produced in whole or in part in the Xinjiang are produced with forced labor and therefore prohibited from importation. The statement from the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy urges, in order to comply with this legislation, “the presumption should also be extended to cotton fabric imported from Vietnam, which, in turn, is importing cotton and other predecessors of finished apparel from Xinjiang.”

SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 10, 2022 -- The Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy joins almost 200 human rights groups in an open letter urging the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to swiftly release her office’s report on Chinese government rights violations targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic people.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet first indicated her intent to report on Chinese government abuses across East Turkistan in 2018. Since that time, she has offered procedural updates on the status of negotiations to gain meaningful access to the region. In September 2021, Bachelet confirmed that her office was “finalizing its assessment of the available information on allegations of serious human rights violations in [East Turkistan] with a view to making it public.” In December, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the report would be released in a matter of weeks.

Along with other signatories, the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy urged the High Commissioner “to fulfil your mandate, release the report without further delay, and brief members and observers of the UN Human Rights Council on its contents as a matter of urgency.”

Though not a substitute for publishing the report, this week’s announcement of a planned visit in May 2022 to East Turkistan by the High Commissioner is welcomed by the Alliance, which emphasized the need for “meaningful unfettered access that will enable human rights defenders, or victims and their families, to speak to the High Commissioner safely, unsupervised and without fear of reprisal.”

Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of so-called "re-education camps", and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms. There is also evidence that Uyghurs are being used as forced labor and of Uyghur women being forcibly sterilized, along with allegations of torture and sexual abuse.

China has denied all allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, claiming its system of "re-education" camps are there to combat separatism and Islamist militancy in the region.

In December 2021, the Uyghur Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, formerly of the International Criminal Court, has determined, "beyond reasonable doubt that the PRC, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide.” Several countries, including the US, have made similar determination. The leading human rights groups Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have published reports accusing China of crimes against humanity.

SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 9, 2022 -- The Permanent Mission of China to the UN recently released a statement on CGTN to express “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to a virtual event organized by a handful of anti-China elements on the so-called ‘Uyghur Tribunal's Judgement’.”

"The so-called 'tribunal' and its 'judgement' are nothing but a political farce directed by anti-China elements and a despicable desecration of law and truth," according to the statement.

The online event was organized by Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy, a coalition of Vietnamese pro-democratic NGOs. A spokesperson for the Alliance, disagreed with the anti-China characterization and claimed to be "independent observers unaffected by the CCP 's actions in Xinjiang." The Conference on the Uyghur Tribunal Judgement was attended by more than 40 legislators and officials from 11 countries, as well as 64 international organizations.

The conference was keynoted by Sir Geoffrey Nice, QC, formerly of the International Criminal Court, who outlined the principles for the foundation of the Uyghur Tribunal. Mr. Hamid Sabi, Counsel to the Tribunal, emphasized that there "has been a finding by the Tribunal on the basis of substantial evidence, 70 witnesses testified, thousands of documents presented, eight days of full hearing and the conclusion is an extensive judgment." Specifically, it has determined, "beyond reasonable doubt that the PRC, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide.”

To the almost 200 attendees, Senator Janet Rice, founder and spokesperson for the Australian Greens Party, spoke of “the amazing complexity and the detailed evidence which has been brought together by the Tribunal.” She called for “much more coordinated action across all diplomatic and economic sanctions” against “this evidence of the appalling human rights abuses and torture, the sexual violence, the detention and the killings.”

MP Annick Ponthier, a member of Committee of Foreign Affairs in the Parliament of Belgium, declared "the commitment of the Belgian parliament to stopping the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities such as the Uyghurs or Falun Gong practitioners by the CCP when recently a resolution was voted in parliament focusing on the protection of the Uyghurs in China." Stating that “talk is often cheap”, she asked Belgium to “rethink its bilateral relations with China and stop being an indirect accomplice in the crimes against humanity.” She called on the Belgian government to “suspend this investment agreement [with China], think about banning import of products tied to forced labor” and stop the recently ratified extradition treaty with China, which she argued that “Beijing uses these types of treaties to continue silencing and controlling opposition groups in other countries.”

MP Simon O'Connor, Chair of the Australia’s Foreign Affairs, Defence, and Trade Committee quipped, “You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know and what the Tribunal has done has clearly exposed the crimes occurring against the Uyghur people.”

In an open letter, the Alliance asked that "the PRC gives serious consideration to the voluminous evidence and important judgment by the Uyghur Tribunal. As the true purpose of the Genocide Convention is the prevention of genocides, we urge the governing CCP to do everything in its power to reverse its current policies, which cause deaths and untold sufferings among millions of its citizens. A path of crimes of genocide and against humanity has historically and predictably been both shameful and disastrous for their perpetrators.”

As Putin is waging an attack on the Ukrainian people, the Alliance for Vietnam's Democracy also drew a parallel to “Xi’s genocide on the Uyghur people, both in the false claim of national security, as one injustice begets the other.” On the days leading to the Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia signed a joint statement announcing that there is “no limit” to their strategic cooperation and agreed with a plan to delay the invasion to after the Beijing Olympics. The day after the invasion began, Xi Jinping emphasized to Vladimir Putin that he “respects the actions of the Russian leadership in the current crisis.” The Alliance called on the world community to “counter communism and authoritarianism and promote global democratization, in the face of coordination and complicity of this new Sino-Russian autocratic partnership.”

SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 3, 2022 -- Singapore and Indonesia condemned the violation of Ukraine’s territorial integrity on Thursday of last week, after Russia invaded the former Soviet Republic. “Singapore strongly condemns any unprovoked invasion of a sovereign country under any pretext. We reiterate that the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected,” Singapore’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Singapore joined South Korea and Japan as Asian countries which have unveiled sanctions against Russia.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry also said in a statement that Jakarta was “affirming that international law and the United Nations charter regarding the territorial integrity of a country must be adhered to, and condemning any action that clearly constitutes a violation of the territory and sovereignty of a country.” Indonesia currently holds the presidency of the G-20, constituting EU and the world’s 19 largest economies, including Russia.

Meanwhile, responses from other Asian countries have been more guarded. Asked about the latest developments in Ukraine as Russia launched an invasion of the country, Spokesperson for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng on Friday urged “all relevant parties to exercise restraint, abide by the United Nations Charter and basic principles of international law, refrain from using force.”

“Urging restraint and refrain does not make sense if you are Ukrainians under attack,” Dr. Nhu Phuc Nguyen, a spokesperson for the Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy, said in a statement. "For Vietnam which has faced multiple encroachments and attacks on its territories from neighboring China, the lack of any mention of respect for sovereignty is particularly concerning and creates a dangerous precedent for China’s aggression in the South China Sea," according to Dr. Nguyen.

Formally, Russia and Vietnam are strategic partners, committed to helping each other in terms of defense and security. Vietnam is a major customer for Russia’s weapons. On October 2019, Vietnam inked an agreement with Russian defense industrial group Rostec to maintain and repair Russian attack helicopters. This aspect of Russian-Vietnam military ties may contribute to Vietnam's abstention today in the UN General Assembly's resolution to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Vietnamese military leaders have mostly recited Moscow's rationale for the invasion. According to Lieutenant General Nguyen Duc Hai, former director of the Strategy Institute of the Ministry of Defense, "Russia insists that it does not invade other neighboring countries, but only responds to threats from Ukraine. Russia wants to demilitarize Ukraine's military potential, because Russia understands that military potential from outside directly supports and modernizes Ukraine." Major General Le Van Cuong, former director of the Strategy Institute of the Ministry of Public Security, was certain that "President Putin has stated: first, Russia does not invade Ukraine; second, Russia does not target Ukrainian civilians because Ukrainians and Russians are of the same race, ancestry, and bloodline." Lieutenant General Nguyen Thanh Tuan went further to accuse that "President Zelensky refused to implement the Normandy Treaty to seek peaceful reunification measures, but accelerated army building and military development with the intention to join NATO, rely on the US to recover lost and seceded regions, confront Russia, and join the US in encircling, restraining and weakening Russia. An administration that accepts American control has pushed Ukraine to the present situation."

The Alliance for Vietnam’s Democracy is one of the 55 signatories of the Global Democracy Coalition's statement in support of Ukraine. The Alliance, which composes of several pro-democracy organizations, also put out its own joint statement last Friday, which states: "Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and the universal values of democracy and self-determination for which they hold. We stand in solidarity with Ukraine and Ukrainian activists as an attack on them is an attack on Vietnam's freedom-loving people. We call on the Russian people give voice for your friends and neighbors in Ukraine. We welcome swift and resolute sanctions by the world community to put an end to this conflict."

SAIGON, VIETNAM, September 8, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- In an open letter to the Government of Canada, 114 organizations are calling for “a more coherent foreign policy” regarding China. In reference to events by the Chinese Communist Party in Xinjiang that many countries have deemed constituting a genocide, the letter asked that “the Canadian government abides by the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA).” CAHWCA, which implements Canada's obligations under the Rome Statute, was passed by the Parliament in 2000. Canada's House of Commons has voted unanimously to declare China's treatment of its Uyghur minority population a genocide. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet abstained from the vote.

Speaking for the majority in declining the same motion in the Senate, Senator Yuen Pau Woo stated, “The fact that China does not share our view of individual freedoms … is not a basis on which to lecture the Chinese on how they should govern themselves.” The signatory organizations contended that individual freedoms do not have unique Chinese versions and a predominant majority of Chinese, including the victims of human right violations, do not have a say on how they should be governed. Senator Woo, appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau to the Senate, called the motion “an exercise in labelling”. The Genocide Convention, first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, establishes on State Parties such as Canada the obligation to take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators, “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” (Article IV).

The open letter also addressed the Government’s refusal to ask for a change of venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics. “As the Canadian government secured the support of 57 other countries for a joint condemnation of hostage diplomacy," the letter wrote, "we respectfully ask that the Canadian government takes a resolute stance against the hostage takers.” The signatory organizations believed that, “as Canadian hostages are given death and long prison sentences, it does not make sense to the rest of the world that Canada would put its athletes in harm’s way by sending them to the Winter Olympics in Beijing.” The Olympics would happen near where Michael Kovrig and Michael Sparvor are arbitrarily imprisoned the last 1000 days.

Representatives of the organizations which constitute the Advocacy Coalition to Denounce the CCP also expressed concern about talks at the highest level of the Canadian Government validating China’s state legitimacy by calling its authoritarian dictatorship “output democracy”. Democracy, through popular vote, was labeled as “input democracy” and criticized that “democratic elections and changes in government over decades have not consistently produced better outcomes for citizens in many industrialized economies.” The signatory organizations, mostly Vietnamese under a totalitarian communist regime, took this as not just an excuse for an abhorrent system of oppression but also an attack on democracy and people’s rights to vote.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, August 8, 2021 -- In an open letter to the International Olympic Committee, 114 Vietnamese organizations urge the IOC to change venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics. In reference to events in Xinjiang that the US and several other countries have deemed constituting a genocide, the letter wrote: “We believe that the participation in the Winter Olympics in Beijing will be misconstrued or misrepresented as endorsement of the CCP’s authoritarian rule and blatant violation of civil and human rights. This is contrary to our obligation to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide as per Article I of the Genocide Convention.”

According to these organizations, “the spectacles of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will be not only international prestige but also domestic legitimation” for the Chinese Communist Party. While the full scale of the atrocities in Xinjiang remains unknown, there have been multiple reports of the CCP’s imprisoning millions of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and members of other minority groups in internment camps with forced labor, tortures, murders, forced abortions, rapes, sterilizations and organ harvesting. The official position of China is that these are “re-education camps” for potential terrorists and efforts to stop Uyghur women from being “baby-making machines”.

The open letter also accuses the CCP of the misinformation and propagation of the pandemic, illegal occupation of the South China Sea, deprivation of people’s livelihood downstream of the Mekong River, ecocide of natural resources, transmission of lethal synthetic narcotics, intellectual property theft, economic espionage, and human trafficking. It also mentions the bullying of democratic Taiwan, suppression of human rights of the Chinese people, crackdown of Hongkong’s democracy, and support of the military coup in Myanmar.

The Chinese government recently criticized NBC’s coverage of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for displaying an "incomplete" map of the country for not including Taiwan and the South China Sea, calling it an attempt to "play political tricks and self-promotion to achieve ulterior motives." The signatory organizations stated that this incident indicates that “China will use the Winter Games to legitimize its claims and infringement of other countries’ sovereignty, contrary to the IOC’s stated intent of being politically neutral.” If the IOC cannot guarantee against such assertions, the open letter states, “our organizations will lead a world-wide effort for an injunction to stop these violations of other nations’ sovereignty.”

The open letter also submits to the IOC a list of 378 parliamentarians from 12 Winter Olympic countries who support moving the 2022 Olympic Games.

OTTAWA, CANADA, March 30, 2021 -- Speaking at the Conference on the CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting, Senator Marilou McPhedran, C.M., spoke about S-204, a bill in the Canadian Senate, that would make “any evidence of trafficking in human organs or humans an automatic refusal for any entry to Canada.” Senator McPhedran is a human rights lawyer, professor and activist, appointed as an independent senator in the Parliament of Canada by Governor General David Johnston on the recommendation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November 2016.

With parliamentarians from Canada, European Union, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, and United States, Senator McPhedran lauded the recent unanimous vote in the Canada’s House of Commons as follows: “266 of our MPs, who declared what is happening in China directed at Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities and, I would include in this the Falun Gong, that it is indeed a genocide and meets all of the criteria defined as genocide.”

Prime Minister Trudeau and his entire Cabinet abstained from the non-binding motion. In abstention, Foreign Minister Marc Garneau said in a statement that there should be a credible international investigation in response to allegations of genocide. Released on March 8 by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, the investigation by more than 50 global experts “supports a finding of genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of each and every act prohibited in Article II (a) through (e) [of the Genocide Convention].”

The report also claimed: “The highest levels of State—the President of China and the XUAR CCP Secretary and CCP Deputy Secretary—directly orchestrate these coordinated policies and practices, which are relentlessly implemented by a bureaucratic line of entities and officials all the way down to the internment camp guards. The nature of these interconnected and composite acts inescapably demonstrate the clear, effective, and firm control of the State over the ongoing genocide that cannot reasonably be attributed to others beyond the effective control of the State, or to accident or chance. Simply put, China's long-established, publicly and repeatedly declared, specifically targeted, systematically implemented, and fully resourced policy and practice toward the Uyghur group is inseparable from ‘the intent to destroy in whole or in part’ the Uyghur group as such.”

The report, “produced with the contributions of, and upon consultation with, numerous independent experts,” seems consistent with legal findings from leading lawyers at Essex Court Chambers in London, who have issued a legal statement affirming that “there is a credible case that acts carried out by the Chinese government against the Uyghur population in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China amount to crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide.”

UN estimates suggest as many as one million Uyghurs are being held in facilities which, according to human rights groups, are actually sites of forced labor and other human rights abuses against the Muslim minority. Still, China‘s Ambassador to Canada dismissed the House of Commons’ vote and these reports of genocide of Uyghur Muslims as politically motivated and are, in his words, the “lie of the century.”

In her speech, Senator McPhedran stressed that the vote by the House of Commons “is a clear and strong and principled voice that we hope that governments will be able to heed.” Dong Van Tran, a conference organizer and Secretary General for the Vietnamese Canadian Federation, concurred: “The Genocide Convention is preventive by design. Therefore, it is the obligation of all the governments in the world to stop and punish perpetrators of genocide, when such a threat is credible, to promptly prevent a possible extermination of a people in whole or in part.”