Ông Biden phải làm sao để xiêu lòng Việt Nam

Ông Biden phải làm sao để xiêu lòng Việt Nam – mà vẫn giúp được những người kẹt sau song sắt

The Washington Post :How Biden can court Vietnam — and help those stuck behind bars

" As other presidents have done, Mr. Biden will undoubtedly offer respect for Vietnam’s differing political system. But he should also speak the truth to Vietnam’s leaders: No ruler or system is made stronger when it destroys the rights and dignity of its own people."

Nguồn: The Washington Post

03/9/2023

Song ngữ Việt Anh

VNTB – Ông Biden phải làm sao để xiêu lòng Việt Nam – mà vẫn giúp được những người kẹt sau song sắt

Trước khi ông Biden nâng ly chúc mừng các nhà lãnh đạo tại Hà Nội, ông cũng nên nhắc nhở thành tích nhân quyền ngày càng tệ của Việt Nam và kêu gọi sự thay đổi.

Hoa Kỳ và Việt Nam sắp sửa nâng cấp mối quan hệ song phương một cách đáng kể, khi Tổng thống Biden viếng thăm Hà Nội vào ngày 10 tháng 9. Kế hoạch của chính quyền Hoa Kỳ nhằm thiết lập “quan hệ đối tác chiến lược” với Việt Nam đang được thúc đẩy bởi mong muốn kềm chế Trung Quốc ở khu vực Ấn Độ Dương-Thái Bình Dương. Nhưng trước khi ông Biden nâng ly chúc mừng các nhà lãnh đạo tại Hà Nội, ông cũng nên nhắc nhở thành tích nhân quyền ngày càng tệ của Việt Nam và kêu gọi sự thay đổi. Tổng thống hiện có trong tay nhiều hơn một phương tiện để khuyến khích cải tổ.

Việt Nam là một quốc gia độc đảng do Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam cai trị. Kể từ năm 2016, dưới sự lãnh đạo theo đường lối cứng rắn của Tổng Bí thư Nguyễn Phú Trọng, chính quyền Việt Nam đã tiến hành đàn áp trên diện rộng các nhà hoạt động, bất đồng chính kiến, xã hội dân sự và tự do tôn giáo.

Toàn bộ ban lãnh đạo phong trào biến đổi khí hậu của Việt Nam hiện đang bị tống giam; việc bỏ tù họ đã phá hủy những nỗ lực tổ chức và liên minh vận động của phong trào này. Ngày 1 tháng Sáu, Việt Nam đã cáo buộc nhà hoạt động khí hậu hàng đầu, Hoàng Thị Minh Hồng, tội trốn thuế khiến bà trở thành nhà hoạt động môi trường thứ năm phải đối mặt với cáo buộc như vậy trong hai năm qua. Một báo cáo điều tra nhân quyền do Dự án 88 công bố vào tháng 4 cho thấy nhà cầm quyền đã vũ khí hóa luật thuế để bịt miệng các nhà hoạt động môi trường như thế nào.

Việc Việt Nam đàn áp những nhà hoạt động này hoàn toàn đối nghịch thỏa thuận Việt Nam đã ký kết với Liên minh Châu Âu và Nhóm G7, cộng thêm Đan Mạch và Na Uy, được gọi là Đối tác Chuyển đổi Năng lượng Công bằng, nhằm giúp Việt Nam huy động ít nhất 15,5 tỷ USD từ các nhà đầu tư công và tư hòng đáp ứng cam kết sẽ đạt mức phát thải ròng bằng 0 vào năm 2050. Thỏa thuận này quy định rằng “để quá trình chuyển đổi diễn ra một cách công bằng và hợp lý, [Việt Nam] cần phải tham vấn thường xuyên với giới truyền thông báo chí, với các tổ chức phi chính phủ cũng như các bên liên quan khác để bảo đảm có sự đồng thuận rộng rãi trong xã hội”.

Hiện có 193 nhà hoạt động đang bị cầm tù ở Việt Nam. Đó là chưa tính những người bị buộc lưu vong hoặc phải sống trong im lặng. Nhiều người đã bị nhà nước bỏ tù vì những cáo buộc dựa trên các điều khoản mơ hồ trong bộ luật hình sự. Chẳng hạn như Điều 117 – hình sự hóa việc “làm, tàng trữ, phổ biến hoặc tuyên truyền thông tin, tài liệu, sản phẩm nhằm chống nhà nước,” hay Điều 331 – cấm “lợi dụng các quyền tự do, dân chủ xâm phạm lợi ích của nhà nước.” Ví dụ cụ thể nhất là trường hợp tác giả và nhà báo Phạm Đoan Trang, người năm ngoái được tặng Giải thưởng Phụ nữ Dũng cảm Quốc tế từ Bộ trưởng Ngoại giao Hoa Kỳ, hiện đang thụ án 9 năm tù bởi cáo buộc tuyên truyền chống nhà nước. Khi ở Hà Nội, ông Biden cần nói với những người đã bỏ tù Đoan Trang rằng: Hãy thả cô ấy ra, cùng tất cả các tù nhân chính trị khác.

Cuộc đàn áp từ Hà Nội cũng đã dẫn đến việc giải thể những tổ chức bảo vệ môi trường, các nhà xuất bản độc lập, hiệp hội các nhà báo độc lập của đất nước và một tổ chức chống tham nhũng phi chính phủ. Nhiều cá nhân tuy không có lịch sử hoạt động có tổ chức nhưng sử dụng mạng xã hội để lên tiếng về tham nhũng, về việc kiểm soát đại dịch hay các vụ lạm dụng tài nguyên công cũng đối diện nguy cơ bị truy tố. Các biện pháp kiểm soát đối với xã hội dân sự đã trở nên nghiêm ngặt hơn – gia tăng hạn chế trong giới học thuật và các hội nghị quốc tế, tăng cường giám sát các tổ chức trong nước dựa vào nguồn tài trợ nước ngoài và kiểm duyệt truyền thông xã hội. Ủy ban Tự do Tôn giáo Quốc tế Hoa Kỳ đã phát hiện “những vi phạm tự do tôn giáo nghiêm trọng đang diễn ra và có hệ thống” ở Việt Nam và đã kêu gọi chính phủ Hoa Kỳ liệt Việt Nam vào danh sách “quốc gia cần quan tâm đặc biệt” dựa theo Đạo luật Tự do Tôn giáo Quốc tế năm 1998.

Hoa Kỳ và Việt Nam thiết lập quan hệ song phương vào năm 1995. Đến năm 2013 thì Tổng thống Barack Obama khởi phát “quan hệ đối tác toàn diện” với Hà Nội. Việc chính phủ Biden muốn nâng cấp mối quan hệ lên “đối tác chiến lược” là có cơ sở – cả về thương mại lẫn địa chính trị. Việt Nam chắc chắn rồi sẽ được hưởng các điều kiện thương mại ưu đãi hơn, cũng như sự hợp tác quân sự sâu rộng hơn. Song ông Biden cũng không thể bỏ qua tình trạng nhân quyền ngày càng xấu đi của Việt Nam.

Hãy lấy hiệp định thương mại yểu mệnh do ông Obama đề xướng làm ví dụ. Qua Hiệp định Đối tác xuyên Thái Bình Dương (TPP) Việt Nam nhìn thấy cơ hội tiếp cận nhiều hơn một trong những thị trường xuất khẩu lớn nhất của mình là Hoa Kỳ. Đồng thời TPP cũng sẽ buộc chính quyền phải cho phép công nhân thành lập công đoàn độc lập, cấm sử dụng lao động trẻ em trái pháp luật và mang lại cho các công ty tư nhân cơ hội lớn hơn để cạnh tranh với doanh nghiệp nhà nước do Đảng Cộng sản vận hành. Về mặt dân sự thì người dân sẽ được có một “mạng Internet mở và miễn phí”. Rất tiếc ông Donald Trump đã rút Hoa Kỳ ra khỏi TPP ngay sau khi nhậm chức tổng thống, thế là bao lợi ích được hứa hẹn bỗng dưng tan biến.

Một lần nữa, ông Biden cần thúc đẩy Việt Nam thay đổi – và phải quyết chí hơn nữa hòng đạt được những thỏa thuận thương mại quan trọng nhằm gia tăng sự thịnh vượng đồng thời cải thiện điều kiện sống ở những nước như Việt Nam.

Như các đời tổng thống trước đã làm, ông Biden chắc chắn sẽ thể hiện sự tôn trọng đối với hệ thống chính trị khác biệt của Việt Nam. Tuy nhiên ông cũng nên nói thẳng, nói thật với các nhà lãnh đạo Hà Nội rằng: Không nhà cầm quyền hay thể chế nào có thể mạnh lên khi nó chà đạp nhân quyền và phẩm giá của người dân.

https://vietnamthoibao.org

How Biden can court Vietnam — and help those stuck behind bars

The Post's View

Opinion

By the Editorial Board

August 30, 2023

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at Communist Party of Vietnam headquarters in Hanoi on April 15. (Pool/via REUTERS)

The United States and Vietnam are on the cusp of a significant upgrade in their relationship, to be sealed when President Biden visits Hanoi on Sept. 10. The administration’s plan to establish a “strategic partnership” with Vietnam is driven by a desire to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. But before Mr. Biden raises a toast to Vietnam’s leaders, he should call out Vietnam’s deteriorating human rights record and press for change. The president has more tools to encourage reform than it might appear.

Vietnam is a one-party state ruled by the Communist Party of Vietnam. Since 2016, under the reign of hard-line General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the government has undertaken a wide-ranging crackdown on activism, dissent, civil society and religious freedom.

The entire leadership of the country’s climate change movement is now incarcerated, and the jailings have destroyed its organizational efforts and advocacy coalitions. On June 1, Vietnam formally charged the country’s leading climate activist, Hoang Thi Minh Hong, with tax evasion, making her the fifth environmentalist to face such charges in the past two years. A human rights investigation published in April by the 88 Project shows how authorities have weaponized the tax-evasion law to silence environmentalists.

Vietnam’s persecution of these activists runs against its agreement with the European Union and Group of Seven nations, as well as Denmark and Norway, called the Just Energy Transition Partnership, to help Vietnam mobilize at least $15.5 billion from public and private investors to meet its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. The agreement stipulates that “for the transition to be just and equitable, regular consultation is required, including with media, NGOs and other stakeholders so as to ensure a broad social consensus.”

There are 193 activists in prison in Vietnam. This does not include those who have been forced into exile or otherwise silenced. Many of those in prison were charged with vaguely worded provisions in the penal code, such as Article 117, which criminalizes “making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State,” or Article 331, which bars “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state.” For example, Vietnamese author and journalist Pham Doan Trang, who last year was a recipient of the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award, is serving a nine-year prison sentence for supposedly spreading propaganda against the state. When in Hanoi, Mr. Biden ought to tell her jailers: Let her go, along with all the other political prisoners.

The crackdown has also led to the dissolution of environmental groups, independent publishing houses, the country’s association of independent journalists and a nongovernmental anti-corruption organization. People who have no history of organized activism but are using social media to voice grievances about corruption, pandemic controls and the misuse of public resources are also facing prosecution. Controls on civil society have become more stringent, including restrictions on academics and international conferences, increased scrutiny of domestic organizations that rely on foreign funding, and censorship of social media. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has found “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom” in Vietnam and has urged the U.S. government to designate it a “country of particular concern” under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

The United States and Vietnam established bilateral relations in 1995, and President Barack Obama in 2013 launched a “comprehensive partnership” with Hanoi. The Biden administration’s pursuit of an upgrade to “strategic partnership” is grounded in trade and geopolitics. It will allow Vietnam access to preferential trade terms and greater military cooperation. But Mr. Biden cannot neglect the spiraling human rights situation.

The example of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Mr. Obama’s doomed trade pact, is instructive. Vietnam saw a chance for greater access to one of its biggest export markets, the United States. It agreed to allow independent trade unions, outlaw child labor and give private firms a greater chance to compete against the Communist-run state sector. Citizens were promised a “free and open internet.” Unfortunately, President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the TPP, and the promised gains were lost. Mr. Biden should push again for change — and be more willing to strike substantial trade deals that would both generate wealth and improve conditions in places such as Vietnam.

As other presidents have done, Mr. Biden will undoubtedly offer respect for Vietnam’s differing political system. But he should also speak the truth to Vietnam’s leaders: No ruler or system is made stronger when it destroys the rights and dignity of its own people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/30/biden-vietnam-human-rights/

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