On this episode of China Uncensored,
anti-China protests in Vietnam explode into street violence.
Hi.
Welcome back to China Uncensored.
I’m your host, Chris Chappell.
Anti-China protests broke out in Vietnam this past weekend.
People charged through barricades.
Riot police showed up in full force.
People threw stuff at the police.
The police charged at people.
And dragged some of them away.
Let’s just say, there were reports of police brutality.
A citizen journalist posted this video, with the caption
“Protesters are being killed
by the Vietnamese communist government.”
And at least one kid was so upset by the whole thing
that he couldn’t hold back his tears.
I think he’s crying because so many people
were shooting vertical video.
Hold your phone horizontally, people!
Horizontally!
Now viral social media moments aside,
protests in Vietnam are actually fairly common.
It’s a communist regime, and that typically means
no shortage of reasons for people to get upset.
And since Facebook is popular in Vietnam,
a lot of people there are organizing protests using Facebook,
and uploading their vertical videos by the thousands.
Anyway, we’re talking about these particular protests
because they were fueled mainly by anti-China sentiment.
The Vietnamese government wants to pass a law creating
Special Economic Zones.
These are places where foreign companies
get special incentives
and fewer restrictions to set up factories—
factories the size of small cities.
A bit like the infamous Foxconn factory in China,
where workers were so happy they were jumping for joy.
Out of windows.
Which is why the company had to install suicide nets.
But it wasn’t bad working conditions
Vietnamese protesters are worried about.
They’re worried that the Vietnamese government’s Special Economic Zones
will be dominated by Chinese companies—
giving the Chinese regime too much power and influence.
One of the specific things was the idea that Chinese companies
could lease land in these zones for up to 99 years.
I mean, it’s not like that’s ever happened before, right?
Right.
But with anti-China sentiment running high in Vietnam,
it didn’t take much for violence to erupt.
Even though most protesters were peaceful,
all it takes is a few bad eggs.
And a small pile of rocks.
People in Vietnam are already angry with China
over South China Sea disputes.
Vietnam has a long-standing claim that’s being
aggressively challenged by the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese military has built artificial islands on outcrops,
and then turned islands into weaponized fortresses.
And they spray Vietnamese ships with water cannons
when they get too close.
So it’s little wonder that anti-China sentiment
is running high in Vietnam.
And when you’re angry at the actions of the Chinese regime,
it’s easy for that idea to bleed into being angry
at China as a country,
and even at Chinese people.
This protest banner says
“No leasing land to China even for one day.”
The Chinese embassy even issued a warning
to Chinese citizens in Vietnam to be careful.
And in a statement that doesn’t at all make it appear
that China is interfering in
the internal affairs of another country,
the embassy blasted the protests
for having “anti-China content”
and called them “illegal.”
Well amazingly,
the protests over the weekend seem to have worked.
Partly.
On Monday,
Vietnam’s National Assembly agreed to delay their vote
on the Special Economic Zone bill.
Because why deal with problems today
that you can put off into the future?
Possibly in a sneaky way
that doesn’t arouse so many protesters?
So, problem solved.
Except, there’s more to it than that.
There’s another element to the protests.
They were also calling out
a dangerous new cybersecurity bill.
As much as the Vietnamese regime hates how
the Chinese Communist Party acts in the South China Sea,
they love how the they do cybersecurity.
Vietnam’s National Assembly had plans to enact
a harsh new law straight out of the Chinese regime’s playbook.
It would give Vietnamese authorities “
wide discretion to determine when [online] expression
must be censored as ‘illegal.’”
It would also help them stifle dissent
by forcing internet providers to remove offending content—
and it would require providers to give user data to authorities
without a court order.
The US and Canada have both officially urged Vietnam
to delay passing this law.
Amnesty International warned that this
could turn companies into “state surveillance agents.”
And so a lot of protesters were upset about this too.
And it turns out they were right to be upset,
since on Tuesday,
Vietnamese authorities did pass the cybersecurity law.
Although it doesn’t officially go into effect until January 1, 2019.
But in a weird twist, there’s also a conspiracy theory
that these protests could have been a false flag
created by the Vietnamese regime.
Specifically, it says that Vietnamese authorities
planted people to make sure the anti-China protests
turned violent.
That way, they’d have an excuse to crack down harder—
and more importantly,
have an excuse to say,
“See?
Vietnam needs a new cybersecurity law,
because you people are using the internet
to organize your violent protests.”
Now that’s just a theory so far.
And I haven’t seen solid evidence.
But it’s not inconceivable that an oppressive communist regime
would be willing to use underhanded tactics to get what it wants.
And while it’s unclear whether any part of the protests
were actually orchestrated by the Vietnamese regime,
one thing does seem pretty clear:
Now that the cybersecurity law has passed,
this could be the last time the public
gets to see videos of protests in Vietnam.
So what do you think about the protests
that rocked Vietnam over the weekend?
Leave your comments below.
And before you go,
it’s time for me to answer another question
from a China Uncensored fan on Patreon.
Forrest Goodman asks...
“Will the corruption in the CCP ever
reach a breaking point and collapse,
or is the party just too big to fail?”
That’s the million yuan question, Forrest!
People have been predicting for a long time
the fall of the Chinese Communist Party.
And it makes sense.
Rampant corruption,
shadow banking,
a housing bubble,
capital flight—
those are just a few of the issues that threaten
to tank the economy.
Not to mention every year,
there’s about 200,000 mass protests across the country.
Even Communist officials talk about the danger the Party faces.
But if the Party were a boat on the ocean,
it’s done a remarkable job duct taping up any leaks.
That’s the kind of power an authoritarian regime
can bring to bear when it has, say,
total control over the economy.
But that kind of iron grip is exactly the reason
all these problems keep popping up.
The Party is big,
but you know what they say,
the bigger you are,
the harder you fall.
It’s only a matter of when.
Thanks again for your question!
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Thanks for watching.
Once again, I’m your host Chris Chappell,
see you next time.
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