Activists to Vietnam: Don’t Listen to Communist China

Epoch Times Staff

The Vietnamese government is coming under censure for acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party in a widely publicized, recent political trial. Vietnam is attempting to use its court system to punish two young men in the country who were broadcasting news about Chinese human rights abuses into China.

The two Vietnamese citizens, Vu Duc Trung and Le Van Thanh, were arrested by the government in June last year—they have been detained for the last 15 months without a trial.

A trial set for Oct. 6 was postponed at the last minute without explanation—the second time such a postponement had been made in the last six months, after international pressure and attention was brought against the Vietnamese government.

The latest group to add its voice to the chorus of criticism was the Voice of Vietnamese Americans (VVA), a Washington-based NGO. They issued a statement on Oct. 4 urging the Vietnamese authorities to respect human rights and immediately release the two that are being held.

VVA said that religious tolerance has always been part of Vietnam’s culture and traditions. Mr. Trung and Mr. Thanh are both practitioners of Falun Gong, a Chinese spiritual practice based on the precepts of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. It has been harshly persecuted in China since 1999, and their arrest happens amidst a campaign of repression against Falun Gong in Vietnam, carried out at the behest ofthe Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The organization continued in its press release: “The People of China and the People of Vietnam demand a new era of freedom, democracy, and sustainable economic growth with human rights and equal justice for all.”

The Korean office of Sound of Hope Radio, the broadcast network from which Mr. Trung and Mr. Thanh downloaded the content they broadcast into China, also demanded the release of the prisoners.

Though the two men did not share an official affiliation with SOH, SOH Korea held a press conference in front of the Vietnamese Embassy and admonished the government not to listen tothe Chinese communist leadership.

“We hope that the Vietnamese government does not to succumb to the Chinese Communist Party and impinge on freedom of speech of its own country,” said Hong Chengyi from Sound of Hope.

Human Rights Without Frontiers, a Belgium-based NGO, also spoke out. Kang Qizong, a representative of the group, said: “The two Falun Gong practitioners did not constitute a threat to society. It is outrageous that such thing can happen because of a letter fromthe Chinese authorities.”

Mr. Kang was referring to a letter obtained and publicized by The Epoch Times which states in explicit terms that CCP authorities want the radio broadcasts shut down, and expect the Vietnamese to do the hatchet-work. It was distributed among the relevant government departments in Vietnam.

Sound of Hope Radio is a predominately Mandarin-language broadcast network, with a website that offers its programs for download. A media partner of The Epoch Times, the network makes a point of robust news documenting the Chinese Communist Party’s lawlessness, human rights abuses, corruption, etc.

Mr. Trung and Mr. Thanh are still being detained and could be brought to trial at any time.

Read the original Chinese article.

chinareports@epochtimes.com