LIV co-director and co-founder, Vi Tran, was cited in Nikkei Asia’s July 20, 2022 feature article, “Asia’s odd couple: Vietnam and the U.S. find opposites attract,” which discusses the relationship between the two aforementioned countries.
The article goes into detail about several factors of U.S.-Vietnam relations such as the mutual benefits of trade, the quick re-establishment of ties despite the atrocities committed by both sides during the Vietnam war, and the apparent hypocrisy shown by the U.S. when dealing with Vietnam and China, despite the many similarities between both countries.
Regarding the differences in how the U.S. interacts with Vietnam and China, Vi Tran states, “[Biden] reassured that America stands for these universal values [freedom, democracy, rule of law].” She adds, “I really hope he will mean what he said.”
Ms. Tran also highlights the stance the U.S. takes regarding the issue of human rights in China and Vietnam. She says, “The U.S. calls both China and Vietnam authoritarian, but in public, its rhetoric is harsh on the former and weak on the latter.” In addition, she adds that the climate for activists in Vietnam has “hit a new low” and that in the past ten years, many civil society groups in Vietnam have been dissolved.
Towards the end of the article, Ms. Tran states that “[the Vietnamese communist party] is becoming more skilled at and prolific in restricting the internet, and the U.S. has not done enough to censure the censors.” She believes that U.S. leaders should be more active in “specifically and more forcefully defending civil liberties.”
She ends with, “Don’t be afraid, the Vietnamese people love the U.S.” and claims that the Vietnamese people would love America more if it was more proactive in upholding the proper observation of human rights in Vietnam.