Sons of Revolution: Vietnam’s New Protest Movement

The extraordinary eruption of nationwide protest in June 2018 highlighted widespread fears in the Vietnamese populace that growing Chinese investment in Vietnam could undermine the nation’s independence, and erode the legacy of founding father of the nation Ho Chi Minh.

An environmental campaigner and NGO consultant, Ms. Huong, in an interview with The Diplomat, commented that the “Vietnamese people have long been very proud of their independence. They are ready to fight for it at any price. We can’t stand being colonized or oppressed by outsiders.

“The movement now against the SEZ [special economic zones] is in continuity with the past.” (Ms. Huong — not her real name — requested anonymity to protect her work for civil society).

During the summer protests, tens of thousands occupied the streets in Ho Chi Minh City. Thousands more demonstrated in six provinces nationwide in June 2018 in an attempt to block a controversial draft law that offered new special economic zones (SEZs) in three strategic locations, with 99-year leases on offer. Chinese companies were the frontrunners to be the prime beneficiaries of these locations.

Vietnam’s Minister for Plan and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung hopes that the SEZs, located in special positions and run with special preferences, will become magnets for investments, thus helping economic development.

In spite of ongoing conflict with China over disputed islands in the South China Sea, and recent protests over special economic zones, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recently wooed Chinese investors at November’s International Import Expo conference, held in Shanghai. China is Vietnam’s top trading partner.

Independent analyst and writer Nguyen Quang Dy, a former foreign ministry official, argues that China’s soft power (including investment) is a complementary threat to their militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea. “Chinese crony firms would take over the SEZs as a ‘soft invasion without fighting’” in accordance with Sun Tzu’s Art of War, he said. “For those critical positions on land that China could not take by force, they would try to take over by investment.”