-This is what political intimidation
looks like in Vietnam.
In June, the family home of labor-rights activist
Do Thi Minh Hanh was attacked by unknown assailants.
More than just a prank or a botched robbery,
the bricks and firecrackers thrown into this home
were a message.
In 2010, Minh Hanh was sentenced to seven years in prison
for helping to organize a labor strike.
Now free, she continues to be harassed by people
she believes are either police or working for them.
-As an activist in Vietnam, we're always faced with dangers.
We're ready to be beaten right on the street,
ready for violent attacks.
There is no place for me to live peacefully in Vietnam.
-Minh Hanh shot these videos
and later posted them to her Facebook page.
She was forced to flee her father's home
and is now living in a safe house
in Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon.
Vietnam is a rising powerhouse in southeast Asia
thanks to economic reforms, but the communist government
is one of the most repressive in the world.
The regime restricts freedom of speech
and assembly and censors the press.
Labor rights are also severely limited.
In 2014, Minh Hanh was released
early after pressure from the United States.
At the time, the US and Vietnam
were negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership,
or TPP, a multi-country trade deal.
Under pressure from the Obama administration,
Vietnam agreed to reform its labor laws
and allow independent trade unions
as a condition of joining the TPP.
-The TPP will require reforms to protect workers
and rule of law and intellectual property,
and the United States is ready to assist Vietnam
as it works to fully implement its commitments.
-It was a huge win for activists like Minh Hanh.
-I think if there is a TPP agreement in Vietnam,
then there will be a lot of changes for independent unions.
Workers will enjoy more benefits
and they will have a living wage,
not struggling as they do now.
-TPP had, at one time, been seen as a force to help open Vietnam.
Definitely, it was something that made
the Vietnamese government, you know,
be more on sort of their best behavior
to get this type of trade agreement.
-All right, we're going to sign three memorandums right now.
The first one is a withdrawal of the United States
from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
-Even though it was President Trump who ended up killing TPP,
the pact had been in jeopardy for a while.
The Obama administration struggled to convince
a skeptical Congress that the deal was worth ratifying,
and although pro-TPP as Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton ended up opposing the agreement
as the Democrat's presidential nominee in 2016.
But the death of TPP
doesn't mean trade with Vietnam will stop.
-We have a major trade deficit with Vietnam,
which will hopefully balance out in a short period of time.
We expect to be able to do that.
They've just made a very large order in the United States,
and we appreciate that, for many billions of dollars.
-But activists now worry that a TPP without the US
gives Vietnam's government fewer reasons to reform.
-We've noticed an alarming increase in arrests in Vietnam
over the last year, year and a half.
There's probably a perception of less engagement from the US,
a world that's a little bit distracted,
and that's probably created opening for these arrests.
-But the Trump administration pushes back against suggestions
that human rights in Vietnam are a back-burner issue.
State Department spokesperson Hearth Nauert said
in a statement that the US "routinely raises human rights"
with Vietnam and calls on the government
to release all prisoners of conscience.
-It's true that love in the soul and in the heart can't be lost.
And as history has proved, the more tyranny,
the more repression,
the stronger the human spirit becomes.
That's why those who were beaten, beaten up,
are still smiling, still fighting
and still walking their path.