[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 23, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E941-E942]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY VIETNAMESE AUTHORITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 23, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, the Vietnamese-American 
community is celebrating its 40th year in the U.S. We often think of 
1975 as a time of tragedy and loss, as the Vietnam War ended with 
helicopters flying off the U.S. Embassy. But from tragedy has come hope 
and prosperity. The Vietnamese-American community has added so much to 
the American fabric. They are a shining example of an immigrant 
community, many who came here penniless refugees, who has made 
important contributions to the United States.
   The subcommittee I chair has held numerous hearings on human rights 
in Vietnam and we have discussed a range of concerns, from restrictions 
on religious freedom to the jailing and torture of dissidents.
   From sex and labor trafficking to the censorship of the press and 
Internet, the Vietnamese Government and Communist Party continues to be 
one of the world's worst abusers of human rights. We may want to sweep 
that reality under the table, paper it over by promises of security 
cooperation and trade deals. But that reality stares us in the face and 
requires us to ask whether U.S. policy really serves the people of 
Vietnam, people who want our liberties and freedoms as much as our 
trade.
   The U.S. Government must continue to press the Vietnamese government 
on truly fundamental human rights issues, not only in human rights 
dialogue, but in all meetings with Vietnamese officials, at the highest 
levels from the U.S. President on down.
   Sixty-six percent of the Vietnamese population is under 35, they 
don't remember the war, they want their lives to look like those of 
their Vietnamese cousins in the U.S., in Australia, and Canada. Our 
policies cannot only be directed at the Vietnamese elite in the 
Communist Party, but must focus on the people of Vietnam. They are 
looking for U.S. leadership; they are hungry for a U.S. policy that 
advances the rights and freedoms of the Vietnamese people. They 
understand that if the U.S. sides with the Vietnamese Government, they 
will only receive crumbs from the Communist Party's table.
   Our economic, security, and freedom interests must be linked. The 
Vietnamese Government needs U.S. security cooperation and economic 
benefits more than the U.S. needs Vietnam. We have leverage to bring 
about concrete changes in Vietnam. We must not give up or ignore this 
leverage.
   If human rights issues are not explicitly linked to our economic and 
security interests, we risk having discussions on trade and defense 
moving forward, while human rights conditions go backward.
   Trade between the U.S. and Vietnam has exponentially expanded since 
Vietnam was granted normal trade relations in 2000. If this expansion 
is to continue under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP for short, 
then the American people should at least be assured that Vietnam, 
currently our 15th largest source of imports, is protecting basic 
freedoms.
   If the past is any indicator, Vietnam will regress from political 
liberalization as soon as it gains preferential trade status. In 2007, 
after the United States lifted its long-standing objection to Vietnam's 
membership in the World Trade Organization, Hanoi responded by 
launching the first of three waves of arrests that jailed over one 
hundred dissidents and introduced sweeping new laws restricting freedom 
of association, assembly, and the Internet. In short, Vietnam's WTO 
accession allowed the Communist government free license to jail, 
torture, and abuse.
   Further, when the State Department removed Vietnam from the list of 
Countries of Particular Concern as a gesture of goodwill in 2006, we 
once again saw backsliding. Despite the State Department's decision in 
2006 to remove Vietnam from the list of Countries of Particular Concern 
as designated pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act, 
Vietnam, in fact, continues to be among the worst violators of 
religious freedom in the world.
   According to the United States Commission for International 
Religious Freedom's 2015 Annual Report, ``The Vietnamese Government 
continues to control all religious activities through law and 
administrative oversight, restrict severely independent religious 
practice, and repress individuals and religious groups it views as 
challenging its authority . . .'' I agree with USCIRF's conclusion that 
Vietnam should be designated a CPC country.
   I met courageous religious leaders during my trips to Vietnam who 
were struggling for fundamental human rights in their country. 
Unfortunately, many of them, including Father Ly and the Most Venerable 
Thich Quang Do, remain wrongly detained today. There are disturbing 
reports that Father Ly is suffering poor

[[Page E942]]

health. There are over 150 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam. We 
should not forget them.
   Some have made the case that Vietnam has made progress in recent 
years with respect to human rights, especially in regard to joining 
international agreements like the United Nations Convention Against 
Torture. In order for there to be real progress, the Vietnamese 
Government needs to back up its words with actions. The Vietnamese 
Government can show that it is serious about respecting and protecting 
human rights by crafting a new religion law that rolls back some of the 
many constraints on religious activities, but early indications the new 
law will actually be more restrictive. Vietnam can lift its draconian 
Internet restrictions and allow for independent labor organizations. 
Labor protections and Internet freedom are critical economic as well as 
human rights issues.
   Despite the dismal status for human rights in Vietnam, we can exert 
pressure on the Vietnamese Government to cease these abuses. I have 
reintroduced the Vietnam Human Rights Act. The Vietnam Human Rights Act 
of 2015 seeks to promote the development of freedom and democracy in 
Vietnam by stipulating that the United States can increase its non-
humanitarian assistance to Vietnam above FY2012 levels only when the 
President is able to certify that the Government of Vietnam has made 
substantial progress in establishing human rights protections. The 
United States should not be rewarding the Vietnamese regime with 
taxpayer dollars when it continues to violently repress its own people.
   Swift Congressional action on this bill will send a strong message 
that U.S. will not tolerate continuing human rights abuses in Vietnam. 
Its enactment will send an unmistakable message to the Government of 
Vietnam that human rights improvements are fundamental to better 
relations, critically linked to our mutual economic and security 
interests, and cannot be ignored or bargained away.
   Those intent on passing TPP should also be concerned with maximizing 
leverage over Vietnam, with the Vietnamese Government making true and 
lasting concessions on human rights, before we agree to provide them 
with the benefits of trade.
   In fact, we heard from a witness at a recent hearing I held, the 
Reverend Nguyen Manh Hung of the Mennonite Church of Vietnam, how a 
religious leader has been threatened by security forces who told him 
that once TPP is passed, his house of worship will be torn down. This 
is a message that Congress, and the American people need to hear, 
before we continue to debate TPP in the abstract: There should be no 
trade deal with Vietnam without milestones being met on human rights on 
a permanent and sustainable basis.

                          ____________________