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China, a powerhouse nation valued at one hundred thousand dollars

Bangladesh is a country with a population of 147 million in South Asia. After the “civil war” with Pakistan for the numerous reasons including culture, religion, and geography, Bangladesh was formally established in 1971. Economically, Bangladesh is ranked 151 in the world, and therefore is considered a very poor nation. Millions of Bangladesh children are still malnourished. Not only that, the surrounding countries are also poor; thus their trade and economic relations in the region still are not well developed.

But when Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, Louisiana in the August of 2005, Bangladesh was one of the first countries to respond with care in term of manpower and financial assistance. Bangladesh government has donated $1 million to Katrina victims and was willing to offer their experts to build dikes in New Orleans in which they have experience.

Some said that Bangladesh donating one million dollars to the US is like "a grain of salt in the sea." Others said that it was an investment on humanity. A poor and flood-prone country like Bangladesh, that donated money, perhaps will be given back by the US. It is just a matter of time; perhaps it will be with both capital and interest.

However, the vast majority of commentators agreed, politically and economically, that the Bangladesh government gesture has revealed the compassion of its people who have suffered in similar situations. In 1974, the newly formed Bangladesh has suffered one of the biggest floods in the history of mankind, with nearly 30 thousands people dead. The monsoon/rainy season lasts throughout the country for months as we often see on the devastated TV reports about these catastrophic events. No one understands the heart of suffering people, who bear the damage of floods yearly, as the people of Bangladesh.

On November 4th, the super typhoon Haiyan, or Yolanda called by the Filipinos, was warned. On the 7th of November, the Philippines President, Benigno Aquino III urged the people in affected regions to evacuate. However, so many people didn’t receive orders, nor had anywhere to take refuge. After just a few hours, at 6AM, the super typhoon with wind speed of 275 kilometers hit the inland.

According to the estimates of different international volunteer agencies, tens of thousands of people in the central Philippine islands were dead. Leyte Island alone had 10 thousand people who had died. According to the estimates of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) of Philippine government, about 9.5 million people were affected, and there were 630 thousand people who were homeless. According to CNN reporters on the scene, “many villages have become mass graves and survivors drink coconut to survive.” With a wind speed of 275 km/hr, the loss of life and property will eventually be much higher than estimated numbers.

In the crumbling ruins caused by super-typhoon Haiyan, the seeds of compassion were being sown. Hundreds of countries, thousands of charities around the world, flocked to the Philippines with not only medicine, clothes, and food, but also human power to contribute to the wound healing process. Hours after the storm, the U.S. government announced the emergency aid of $20 million; England donated $16 million, and Japan donated $10 million. For the US, that is just the cash money, in addition, the aircraft carriers HMS Illustrious of the British, and the American USS George Washington aircraft carried medications and essential items to the Philippines. And China, which has the second largest economy in the world, donated just one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000).

Companies such as IKEA, committed $2.7 million, Coco - Cola pledged $2.5 million, the amount of aid from China, the second largest economy in the world, may be lower than the amount of Vietnamese boat people and Vietnamese overseas’ contributions. The Times magazine commented that 100 thousand dollars is an insult to the Philippines. Before the reactions of world’s opinion, China has recently increased aid to $1.64 million, but that is not in cash money, but the value of the blanket and mats. The items were labeled "Made in China”; this term only has a fear factor in it.

Many commentators criticized that the Chinese Communist Government supported only about 6% of New Zealand’s promised pledge, but no one understands why the Chinese leaders could do such a thing. Perhaps they do not know what shame is. Even the Global Times, a leaning extreme nationalism, also commented on writing in the November 12, 2013, "China, as a responsible powerful nation, should be involved in the relief operations to help victims of its neighboring country. If China humiliated the Philippines this time, China will be in a great loss."

Chinese leaders are not aware of it, but today China is not the Communist China in which Zhou Enlai had vowed to side with the poor and oppressed neighbors in the Bandung Conference in Indonesia in 1955. China today is not the China that Deng Xiaoping had promised to share and help with Southeast Asian nations with his sweet words during the 1978’s visits. The hard times are past and the prosperous future is approaching. Chinese leaders today maybe are a bunch of arrogant individuals, who were unfurled by the flag of the Chinese nationalists and whose neo policies will be the oil pan for World War III that might originate in Asia.

More than anyone else, Chinese leaders should know that 3 out of the 20 largest floods in humanity happened in China, with about three million people who died in the flood of 1931, two million people died in the flood of 1887, and about seven hundred thousand people died in the 1938 flood, but essentially, the despicable and arrogant communist leaders killed the compassionate characteristics of its innocent people. They also applied a layer of black ash on thousands of years in Chinese culture and people. The current Chinese leaders can also ruin the image of a whole country with the second largest economy in the world.

China is one of the countries with the largest gold reserves in the world; it is the world's largest creditor and their GDP will likely surpass the U.S. in 2020 with an estimated $24 trillion. China has many “firsts”, but that does not make the value of a country, it does not deserve the respect of the humanity because the value of a country is not determined by its wealth, but by its ethical standards, democracy, civilization and culture.

When discussing the qualities to become a great and respected nation, writer Thomas Fann, in a brilliant essay, outlined 10 major standards including: freedom, justice, honor, ethics, compassion, honesty, life values, creativity, excellence, and the protection of the environment for future generations. Fann Thomas insisted on thinking of future generations when he told the Disney Land story. Walt Disney died five years before the Disney World’s grand opening in Florida. During the opening ceremony, some wished that he had lived to see this magical children's splendor world today. In fact, with foresight and ahead-of-our-time thinking, Walt Disney already saw the radiant smiles, the playful eyes of children long before the opening of Disney Land.

China does not meet any of these ten mentioned qualities. But if the ranking must taking place, the Communist Chinese would probably be ranked with contemporaries of the primitive tribal groups/cannibals living scattered in the wild forests in the Congo, the West Indies and the Amazon.

Why?

Not long ago, China was one of the few countries where parents have to survive on their own offspring. Not long ago, there were more than thirty million Chinese people dead because of hunger; they survived relying on each other’s own flesh during “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution” or the period in which people had to bring pots and pans to "cast steel" as advocated by Mao Zedong’s policies. And not just in the last 40 years, even today, while the vast majority of humanity has survived and passed a brutal period of thousands of years, in China the practice of consuming offspring is existed and considered a luxury food. The Next Magazine, which is based in Hong Kong, said that in China, the fetus-consumption is a popular food.

In May, 2012, the Washington Times, a writer and researcher Youngbee Dale said  South Korea authority have seized 17 thousand of pills manufactured from fetuses produced in China. One-child policy has forced couples to choose abortion at a very late stage when knowing the unborn child is a girl. South Korean TV station showed a horror documentary, in which Chinese doctors performed abortions and dined fetal right on the spot. Another Chinese doctor preserved the fetus in the fridge like a piece of meat or fish. The cannibalism occurs in many parts of the primitive tribes in Africa, South America, but cannibalism is allowed and is happening in the homeland of Xi Jinping.

China, as an economic powerhouse and adapting the international political practices, must behave as a powerhouse nation, whatever it might be to a friend or foe. But no, Chinese leaders have no heart, humanity nor show interested in the country's image. For them, money is a weapon, a walking stick. Philippines is a nation--disputed with China over sovereignty of the South China Sea-- suffering more with her dying boys in Tacloban.

Chinese leaders like Ba Duong once said this remark about his country: "Westerners can fight and broken their heads, they can still shake hands, but when the Chinese fight each others, they still see each other as the enemy for a lifetime, sometimes even for generations."

Why so the Japanese not hate the U.S. even though the U.S. has dropped two atomic bombs that killed 240 thousand people in two Japanese islands Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Because they knew it is history. People and nations can’t take back the past and can only overcome their pain; by learning from the past, people and nations can build a better future for generations to come. China is a different story. The hundred-years-old disgraces were recorded boldly at the beginning of their constitution with the message of hatred that the communist party had been exploited.

Since Hurricane Katrina, every time we need to find an example of compassion and caring to praise "human solidarity ", Bangladesh was hailed in most articles and speeches, from the U.S. president to a high school student, they used Bangladesh as a model. From super typhoon Haiyan, China will also be prompted, but with the total opposite of Bangladesh. Chinese will be remembered as despicable, cruel, arrogant and vindictive animals. Its true nature of "harmony and clever" is in the blood, long-term expansion goals and characteristics of the Communist dictatorship.

According to UN statistics, China is a country with a total gross domestic product in 2012 of more than $7 trillion, but today in the eyes of the majority in our humanity, the value of this powerful nation is only worth $100 thousand.

Tran Trung Dao

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Few comparisons have been as odious as the one offered by the president linking one of the great mass murderers of history to one of America's Founding Fathers and authors of our liberty.
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan were mortal and inhumane enemies who joined civilization after their hideous barbarism was defeated.

They renounced their former brutality, acknowledged their guilt and shame, and became our strongest allies as they genuinely embraced liberty and democracy. They did not forget their past. They repudiated it.

Vietnam has never repudiated its past while celebrating a faux victory over an American enemy that was never defeated on the battlefield but only in the halls of a Congress that abandoned an ally and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

President Obama met with his Vietnamese counterpart, President Truong Tan Sang, last Thursday in the same Oval office where LBJ picked bombing targets in a war he micromanaged into futility. The 44th president conveniently forgot Vietnamese history and slandered ours by linking a founder of our democracy, Thomas Jefferson, to the mass murderer Ho Chi Minh.

Sang had brought Obama a copy of a letter sent to President Truman from Ho in which the communist dictator spoke hopefully of cooperation with America.

Obama, stopping short of yet another apology, mused about what might have been, and noted "we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson."

That's technically true and historically accurate. Ho Chi Minh did frame the earliest portions of the 1945 Vietnam Declaration of Independence on the actual Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson in 1776. But while the future third president spoke of inalienable rights granted by his and our Creator, he meant it. Ho Chi Minh was only serious about the glory of the state.

Come to think of it, Obama is too, often leaving the word "Creator" out of any mention of our inalienable rights as mentioned in the declaration while he routinely ignores the Constitution and its restriction on his and federal powers.
To be charitable, one could claim Obama was just trying to humor a guest, as Trent Lott once did to Strom Thurmond.

But was it necessary to praise a man who killed approximately half a million people in an effort to consolidate his power, or to suggest ideological similarities between the architect of mass carnage and an author of liberty?

In consolidating his dictatorial power in North Vietnam, Ho went after landowners, intellectuals, school teachers, businessmen, civic leaders, anyone who might pose future opposition to his thuggish rule. Those who would not publicly confess their crimes against the state and the people were often brutally executed.

By early November 1956, when residents of An Giang province, which included Ho's birthplace village of Nam Dan, refused to pay what they considered oppressive taxes, Ho sent troops to collect, then sent in an army division, shooting. About 6,000 unarmed villagers were killed in a massacre obscured by the Soviet Union's suppression of Hungary.

After Ho's death in 1969, his successors did not miss a beat. Congressional Democrats and their allies in the media, such as the venerable Walter Cronkite, who had already proclaimed the war lost, helped ensure South Vietnam's defeat and ushered in an era of mass carnage, boat people and re-education camps that resulted in more death after the war than during it.

After Saigon's "liberation," the summary executions of tens of thousands of South Vietnamese began. Hundreds of thousands more were forced into re-education camps as 1 million boat people fled on anything that would float, with countless thousands perishing in the South China Sea. And let us not forget the killing fields of Cambodia, where 3 million were slaughtered.

This is the legacy of the man Obama said was inspired by Thomas Jefferson.


source: Investors Business Daily
http://news.investors.com/ibdeditorials.aspx
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Freedom Online Coalition Joint Statement on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's Decree 72

Press Statement
Marie Harf
Deputy Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
August 26, 2013
Freedom Online Coalition Joint Statement on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's Decree 72


The Freedom Online Coalition is deeply concerned by the announcement of Vietnam’s new Decree 72, which will impose further restrictions on the way the Internet is accessed and used in Vietnam when it comes into effect September 1. For example, Decree 72 restricts online information flow and limits the sharing of certain types of news and other speech. Decree 72 appears to be inconsistent with Vietnam’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Decree 72 risks harming Vietnam’s economy by constraining the development of businesses in Vietnam, limiting innovation, and deterring foreign investment. An open and free Internet is a necessity for a fully functioning modern economy; regulations such as Decree 72 that limit openness and freedom deprive innovators and businesses of the full set of tools required to compete in today’s global economy.

The Freedom Online Coalition notes that resolution 20/8, adopted by consensus by the UN Human Rights Council in July 2012, confirms that human rights apply online as well as offline. The Freedom Online Coalition calls on the Vietnamese government to revise Decree 72 so that it promotes the ability of individuals to exercise their human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.

The Freedom Online Coalition is a cross-regional group of 21 governments that collaborate to advance Internet freedom worldwide. The Coalition provides a forum for like-minded governments to coordinate efforts and work with civil society and the private sector to support the ability of individuals to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms online.

The Freedom Online Coalition was formed at a conference hosted by the government of the Netherlands in 2011, and held further meetings hosted by Kenya in 2012, and Tunisia in 2013. The government of Estonia, chair of the Coalition, will host the next conference in spring 2014.

Souce : U.S. DepartMent of State
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August 6, 2013
Vietnam is the world’s second biggest prison for bloggers and cyber-dissidents, after China.
Vietnam’s bloggers are a source of independently-reported news and information that is an alternative to the government media. They write about corruption, environmental problems and the country’s political developments.
There have been several waves of arrests of bloggers, netizens and journalists in recent years. Mindful of the Arab uprisings, the Vietnamese authorities have been cracking down harder in order to suppress dissent and prevent any destabilization.
The 35 bloggers currently detained include the human rights activist Dieu Cay and the lawyer Le Quoc Quan. They also include Paulus Le Son, Ta Phong Tan, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Nguyen Tien Trung. They are all serving long sentences on such trumped-up charges as subversion, anti-government propaganda and trying to overthrow the government.
Their families are subjected to harassment and smear campaigns. The mother of the jailed blogger Ta Phong Tan took her own life by setting fire to herself in 2012 in an act of despair about the way her daughter has been treated.
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of imprisoned bloggers and netizens, the lifting of censorship and the repeal of the repressive laws that are used against news providers, especially article 88 and clause 1 of article 79 of the

Souce : http://www.eurasiareview.com/06082013-rwb-calls-for-release-of-35-jailed-vietnamese-bloggers/
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By Associated Press, Published: July 22


HANOI, Vietnam — One of Vietnam’s most prominent dissidents is on the 30th day of a hunger strike in protest against being held under solitary confinement, family members said Monday, casting fresh attention on Vietnam’s human rights record ahead of trip by the country’s president this week to the White House.
Nguyen Van Hai, also known as Dieu Cay, is serving a 12-year prison term for conducting “propaganda against the state” in relation to his blogging and citizen media activities. His case has been mentioned by President Barack Obama, whose administration is appealing for the release of political prisoners.
It is unclear whether human rights will be discussed in talks scheduled for Thursday between Obama and Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang. Administration officials have said in the past that closer ties between Vietnam, which shares U.S. concerns about China, would be difficult unless it release dissidents and loosens its grip on freedom of expression.
Hai’s son, Nguyen Tri Dung, said he was allowed to meet with his father for five minutes on Saturday at “Prison No. 6” in central Nghe An province. Earlier this month, his ex-wife visited and Hai was dragged away when he told her about his hunger strike.
“He is in a very serious condition, I could not recognize him, his face was color and he could not sit,” Dung told The Associated Press.
Dung and Hai’s ex-wife Duong Thi Tan were waiting outside the prison on Monday for talks with prison officials.
Prison authorities were not immediately available for comment.
Dung said Hai, 60, told him that he would continue his hunger strike until prosecutors responded to his complaints that he had been put in solitary confinement illegally.
Human Rights Watch said Monday it was concerned about Hai’s health.
“The government should also immediately release Dieu Cay without conditions, along with other prisoners held for exercising their rights to express their views and peacefully act on their beliefs,” it said in a statement.
Hai is one of Vietnam’s most well-known dissidents at home and abroad, and the co-founder of the Club for Free Journalists. The group was established in September 2007 to promote freedom of expression and independent journalism. He was first detained in 2007 as a result of his political views. His 12-year prison term began in September.
The U.S. administration has repeatedly called on Vietnam to allow freedom of expression in the communist country. The ruling party has shown few signs it is listening, apparently concerned that allowing greater political freedom would result in it losing power. The rapid spread of the Internet in the country has opened new avenues for dissent. So far this year, 46 people have been convicted and sentenced for dissident activities, many of them bloggers.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Interior designer appealing 'very harsh' sentence for illicit sex after she reported being raped by a co-worker.


The Norwegian interior designer convicted in Dubai of having illegal sex after she reported being raped is appealing her jail sentence and alerting Western women to the Islam-based legal system of the United Arab Emirates.
"I just want to get fair treatment," Marte Deborah Dalelv, 24, told the AFP news agency Friday. She called her 16-month sentence Tuesday — for extramarital sex, perjury and illegal alcohol consumption — "very harsh," saying she had appealed immediately. A hearing is set for Sept. 5.
Since the Norwegian government secured Dalelv's conditional release after she was charged in March, she has been living under the protection of the Norwegian Seamens' Center, a church in Dubai. But now that she has been sentenced, she told Norway's NRK News that she is officially wanted by the authorities, the BBC reported.
"I should have been imprisoned since Tuesday," she said. "But I have been told they are not searching for me."
She told AFP she was "very nervous and tense."
"I hope for the best, and I take one day at a time," she said by telephone. "I just have to get through this."
Nonetheless, Dalelv stressed she did not want to criticize the UAE government.
"They have their legal system," she said.
Under United Arab Emirates law, sex outside of marriage is illegal, and a rape conviction requires either a confession or four adult male witnesses to the attack. Similar convictions involving foreigners and Emirati women have occurred over the past several years, although the law on extramarital sex is not generally enforced for tourists or several hundred thousand Westerners and others living there on resident visas.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Dalelv said she wanted to "spread the word" about significant differences in the emirates' legal code compared with Western legal systems.
"After my sentence we thought, 'How can it get worse?'" she said from the church. She has been in regular contact with her family, who live outside of Oslo.
Explaining the March 6 attack at a hotel where she was attending a business conference, Dalelv said she awoke to find a co-worker raping her. She fled to the lobby to report the assault, and said the staff questioned whether she wanted to involve the police.
After questioning and a medical examination, she wound up being jailed for four days, charged and having her passport confiscated.
Dalelv said her attacker was sentenced to 13 months for extramarital sex and consuming alcohol without a license.
She also revealed that she was suspended by Qatar-based home-furnishings company The One after her arrest, according to media in Norway, where her case has dominated the news and sparked outrage.
She told NRK that her suspension letter cited "gross misconduct on the job in direct violation of the company's policy" and the firm wants to fire her.
In response, Norwegian colleges cut their ties with The One, which has recruited students from across Scandinavia to come work in the Gulf, The Local reported.
Dubai authorities have not responded or issued any public statements about her case.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said was trying to reach his counterpart in the Gulf nation, but communications were slowed by Ramadan and Friday, Islam's holy day.
Thursday, the Norwegian Department of Foreign Affairs said the verdict "flies in the face of our notion of justice" and was "highly problematic" in terms of Western human rights.
Westerners often misunderstand Dubai, a cosmopolitan Arabian Gulf city-state boasting the tallest building in the world and glamorous malls.
"It can seem modern here, and the comfort level is high," one Norwegian resident told NRK. "But it's a Muslim country, and folks must realize that before they travel."
Noting the influence of Sharia law, he added, "In reality, there are completely different rules that apply, completely shocking rules."
Souce; usatoday.com
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Nguyen Van Hai

A prominent imprisoned Vietnamese blogger, Nguyen Van Hai, more known under his pen name Dieu Cay, is on hunger strike since four weeks. Hai who is serving a 12 years prison term for his peaceful activism reportedly started his hunger strike on 26 June in protest against prison conditions.
Authorities denied Hai’s family members a visit after the news of this hunger strike leaked. Hai’s ex-wife Duong Thi Tan, who tried to visit him, was told that “he was being disciplined and during this time he would not be allowed to see family members,” Radio Free Asia reported. The authorities accused Hai of “disturbing prison order.” The family was set to visit again on 19 July.
Hai’s hunger strike is one in a wave of hunger strikes among prominent prisoners of conscience in Vietnam. Amid this on going hunger strike, his second in less than six months, family members and friends are deeply concerned about his health and the treatment of the blogger in the prison.
Nguyen Van Hai was due to be released in October 2010 after serving a two and half years prison term when the government accused him, along with two other bloggers, of spreading “propaganda against the state”. The charge against the three based on articles published on the website the three run “Free Journalists Club.” With this politically motivated charge Hai was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The international community, including the UN, has been pressuring the Vietnamese government to ensure an end to politically motivated charges against bloggers, and to release them from prison.
In a related development, 69 bloggers issued a first-ever joint statement for law reform.
As many as 69 Vietnamese bloggers signed a petition demanding the government to uphold “the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” ahead of Vietnam’s candidacy to theUN Human Rights Council (HRC).
The bloggers call on the government and the HRC to reform Article 258 of the Penal Code, which is widely used to crackdown against bloggers and stifle freedom of speech.
The petition detailed recent high profile arrests and abuses against bloggers. The statement by the petitioners stressed that “it would be a great responsibility to serve as a member state of the Human Rights Council, and an opportunity to promote human rights domestically and abroad. For a successful candidacy, we believe Vietnam must repeal or make amendments to Article 258 to ensure that Vietnamese people are free to educate themselves about and promote human rights.”
Civil Rights Defenders supports the call of the blogger and encourages the Vietnamese government to take necessary reform measures to improve the human rights situation in the country.


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written by
Tyler Roylance

July 16, 2013

The White House announced last week that President Obama will be hosting the president of Vietnam, Truong Tan Sang, on his first visit to Washington on July 25. The meeting appears to fall under the U.S. administration’s Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy, or Asia Pivot, which is aimed in large part at addressing the rising regional tensions associated with China’s political and economic pressure on its smaller neighbors. While stepping up its dialogue with Beijing, the United States is strengthening ties with allies and other countries in East and Southeast Asia. But unlike most of these partners, Vietnam remains a repressive one-party state and has done little, by way of democratic reform, to earn a presidential invitation.

An important focus of the July 25 talks will be the maritime territorial disputes between China and its neighbors in the South China Sea. The smaller countries in the area are looking to the United States for support in the face of bullying from Beijing, but Vietnam receives the worst ratings of any of these states in Freedom in the World 2013, the most recent edition of Freedom House’s annual global assessment of political rights and civil liberties. It performs only slightly better than China itself.

It is true that the president of Burma—for decades one of the world’s most repressive countries—was invited for a landmark visit to the White House in May, but this came only after key steps toward democracy that included a new constitution, the election of a multiparty parliament, the release of many political prisoners, and a dramatic opening in the media landscape. None of these milestones have been achieved in Vietnam, and it is unclear that the regime has made any decision to pursue them.

Despite growing debate—including within the regime—about the country’s future in light of rampant corruption and deep economic problems, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party maintains a monopoly on political power. All other parties are outlawed, the traditional media are tightly controlled, and mounting expression of dissent on the internet has been harshly punished, with prominent bloggers facing lengthy prison sentences. The outcomes of their trials are determined by a party-dominated judiciary, and in any case police are empowered to detain suspects without trial on national security grounds.

To encourage democratic reforms, it is essential for the United States to link progress on these issues with any further cooperation on security and trade matters. The White House has pledged to discuss Vietnam’s human rights record during the upcoming presidential visit, but the Obama administration has been unwilling thus far to let such concerns derail military and economic relations.

Indeed, some may ask why the United States should attach any importance to democracy and human rights in Vietnam. Strategically speaking, Washington clearly has an interest in countering China’s territorial bluster in the South China Sea and shoring up smaller states in the region, whether or not they are democratic.

One problem with this approach is that it essentially binds Washington to the current regime in Vietnam, and ignores the desires of the Vietnamese people. The United States has paid dearly for this type of short-sighted diplomacy countless times before.

Another, perhaps more crucial problem is that if the Asia Pivot comes to be seen as a classic balancing effort, with no particular ethical or ideological content, it will play into the Chinese Communist Party’s nationalist narrative, according to which the United States is selfishly conspiring with its allies in the region to encircle and contain China, thwarting its rise as a world power. How else to explain an American embrace of one Communist regime at the apparent expense of another? This in turn will encourage the Chinese people to rally around their authoritarian leaders, despite their many grievances with the party’s rule.

By contrast, if the United States commits itself more vigorously to supporting the democratic aspirations of people across the region, including in both Vietnam and China, its diplomacy will rest on a much stronger foundation—and on the right side of history. Closer military and trade ties will come as rewards for democratic reform, and Washington’s bilateral partnerships will prove increasingly stable and enduring. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party will be hard pressed to portray America as a malevolent force, and compelled to explain to the Chinese people why only they are unfit to govern themselves.

In short, if the Asia Pivot is to escape becoming a simple and potentially self-defeating geopolitical chess move—or, more cynically, a public relations feint designed to distract from neglect and withdrawal in southwestern Asia—it must be aboutsomething. The upcoming visit by Vietnam’s president presents an opportunity to fill that void with America’s long-standing democratic values.

 Souce: Freedom House Blog
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EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The Department of Immigration says boat arrivals from Vietnam are at their highest level in 20 years. Eighty four Vietnamese asylum seekers were picked up just north of Broome this week bringing this year's total number of Vietnamese arrivals to more than 750. Many say they're fleeing persecution from the one party communist State but most who fall out with the regime can't flee. Often unseen, more than 50 political dissidents and Internet bloggers have been jailed so far this year for questioning the Communist Party's policies. Our South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel has been in Hanoi meeting bloggers and dissidents in secret and she filed this exclusive report.

ZOE DANIEL, REPORTER: Nguyen Van Dai lives his life under house arrest. After four years in prison for human rights activism and dissident activity he's out of jail but his movements are limited and closely watched.

NGUYEN VAN DAI, BROTHERHOOD FOR DEMOCRACY: If I want to go out my area, it will take about one kilometre square I have to get permission from the local government. If I go out of my area without permission the police, the security officer may arrest me.

ZOE DANIEL: Today he snuck out to meet us. He planned to bring a friend but his phone is off and he can't be found. We later hear that the secret police prevented him from leaving his house.

(To Nguyen): When did you speak to him last?

NGUYEN VAN DAI: Yesterday.

ZOE DANIEL: This is life for political activists in Vietnam where heavy handed intolerance of dissent has seen more than 50 people jailed this year. Those who are not in prison spend their lives dodging the authorities as they attempt to raise questions about government policies and human rights in a country that's struggling to enforce authoritarian rule on an increasingly better informed community.

NGUYEN VAN DAI: The political system is very poor and is controlled by only Communist Party. That is not good for country. We need a multiparty system in Vietnam. This is the rise of Vietnamese people and it's fair for everyone in Vietnam.

ZOE DANIEL: There are a number of key issues that have triggered recent protests in Vietnam and with them the arrest of activists and bloggers who promote discussion on the Internet. Chinese claims on disputed territory in the South China Sea have sparked angry scenes and mass arrests by the Vietnamese authorities who don't tolerate street protests. Grandmother Bui Thi Minh Hang spent five months in jail after she joined protests against land being seized for development by Chinese companies.

BUI THI MINH HANG, BLOGGER (translation): I had to lie in between people who had AIDS. They were bleeding, mucous was coming out and that's how they tortured me by placing me in these conditions.

ZOE DANIEL: She cut herself with a razor blade to protest against the treatment that she received. She's aware that by continuing to blog and by talking to us she's risking being jailed again.

BUI THI MINH HANG (translation): I am no longer scared.

ZOE DANIEL: There are countless stories of mistreatment and brutality, perpetrated by Vietnamese security forces. Nguyen Hoang Vi is a blogger who campaigns for freedom of religion, another hot button issue for authorities intent on quashing dissent and difference. She was recently vaginally searched during a so called ID check and in another incident beaten unconscious by police. Her participation in a human rights picnic where she distributed the universal declaration of human rights to which Vietnam is a signatory resulted in her sister being beaten up. Her elderly mother was burnt by police with a cigarette. When Hoang Vi meets us she's been on the run for a week, unable to go home because it's surrounded by security forces.

NGUYEN HOANG VI, BLOGGER (translation): There are also other incidents, for example, they drove straight into my motorbike and pretended it was an accident. They have also stopped me on the street and assaulted me and they have used many other tactics, but up until now the only thing they have not done is to put me in jail. The rest they have pretty much done.

ZOE DANIEL: The bloggers have taken great risks to meet with us and it has to be done behind closed doors. If we're caught we will be deported. But those who speak to us could be jailed for up to seven years under a catch all law that's used to prosecute those who infringe upon the interests of the State by abusing the rights to freedom of speech, press, belief, religion, assembly, association and other democratic freedoms. Yet these young people who call themselves the Change Club choose to meet us in the open.

ANONYMOUS ACTIVIST (translation): This is how I see it. The biggest issue facing Vietnam in the democratisation process is not going to be from the Government but from society.

ZOE DANIEL: But that's something that the Government of Vietnam is going all out to prevent. Zoe Daniel, Lateline.

Follow: ABC News
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Every time Le Anh Hung starts to write he thinks of his three young children. The 38-year-old has already been imprisoned twice for blogging about human rights and corruption from his home in Hanoi and lives half-expecting another fateful knock at the door. And yet “I’m not scared,” he says, “I know what I choose to do is risky but I accept the fight.”
NA SON NGUYEN / AP

Forty-six bloggers and democracy activists have been imprisoned so far this year in Vietnam — more than the whole of 2012 — amid a vicious crackdown. The intolerance is mirrored across Southeast Asia as regimes attempt to stem brewing dissent. Corruption, lack of effective democracy and a widening wealth gap have all bolstered popular protests in the region. In Malaysia, tens of thousands have taken to the streets to condemn alleged irregularities during May 5 elections that returned the incumbent National Front coalition to power. In Laos, protesters are calling for the safe return of outspoken activist Sombath Somphone. Demonstrations are ongoing in Cambodia, where a ballot slated for July 28 has been hit by accusations of dirty tricks. In recent years, strikes and social unrest have erupted in Vietnam, which is beset by inflation, land-rights abuses and venality.
This political dissatisfaction is buttressed by “deeper forces of economic change and challenges wafting through the region … and the rise of new classes,” Professor Kevin Hewison, director of the Asia Research Centre at Australia’s Murdoch University, tells TIME. Access to the Internet is also creating a culture of dissent that crosses borders. Demonstrators in Vietnam sport red shirts to mimic supporters of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies they venerate, while ubiquitous V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks point to a shared yearning for transparency.
Karin Karlekar, director of the annual Freedom of the Press report by Freedom House, sees “definite parallels” with the Arab Spring, where social media was key in heralding regime change. “It’s not surprising that governments are seeking to clamp down on this as people are being mobilized by the media,” she says. The mounting discord has led to new curbs on the Internet in the countries concerned. Besides the Vietnamese crackdown, there has been a ban in Cambodia on Internet cafés within 500 m of schools. Malaysian Internet intermediaries have meanwhile been made legally accountable for material that disseminates through their systems, including wi-fi terminals.
Stricter media controls are also being applied elsewhere in the region. New licensing rules governing online news led 150 Singapore websites to black out in protest last month, and brought more than 2,000 demonstrators to the streets (an exceptional sight in the tightly run city-state.) The Philippines Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was suspended amid public clamor that it threatened free speech, and a replacement draft has also been widely condemned. Thailand has seen a spike in lèse majesté prosecutions and Internet censorship — 20,978 URLs were blocked last year compared with just 5,078 in 2011, according to the country’s i-Law monitoring group — with a “chilling effect on freedom of expression throughout Thai society,” writes Frank La Rue, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression.
Dissenting voices in newspapers and television in Southeast Asia have traditionally been contained through litigation, intimidation and cronyism, but the blogosphere is an entirely different beast. Prickly elites, unable to replicate China’s Great Firewall and shocked at having their actions dissected and criticized online, are choosing to “shoot the messenger,” says Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch. China employs the world’s most advanced censorship apparatus that filters millions of blog posts and social-media interactions every day. Neighboring governments envy this capability yet lack sufficient tools or expertise, and so employ cruder tactics. These include “Thailand hammering free-speech advocates touching previously sacrosanct topics, Vietnam jailing bloggers left and right on specious charges, and, of course, Singapore moving its censorship regimen to the Internet,” explains Robertson.
Governments must reckon, however, with the determination of online dissidents like Hung. Blogging channels his burning desire for a freer society, despite the hardship it brings to his family. “Everywhere I and my wife work, the police come and they pressure the employer to sack us,” he says, adding that he was once incarcerated inside a mental hospital in a cruel attempt to have him both humiliated and discredited. Unperturbed, he vows to “keep blogging as I accept all intimidation and harassment in the fight for human rights.”
Perhaps history will be on his side. In 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Burma, officially known as Myanmar, as the world’s worst place to be a blogger. Today (albeit with the specter of draconian regulations still lurking on the statute books) it boasts one of the region’s freest Internet realms, its hard-won freedoms serving as an example to dissidents elsewhere.
“People are certainly seeing things overseas and adopting them,” says Hewison. “The media is becoming much more important.” With dissidents and governments in Southeast Asia both realizing the same thing, it looks like the struggle for control of the region’s online realms has only just begun.

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/07/18/internet-censorship-is-taking-root-in-southeast-asia/#ixzz2ZROhYtFv
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