AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY AUGUST 28, 2018

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

98

Introduced by Assembly Member Kalra

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bonta, Chu, Gonzalez Fletcher, McCarty, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Quirk-Silva, and Ting)

August 16, 2018

Relative to Vietnam.

Fiscal committee: no

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

This measure would urge the President, the Vice President, and Congress to call on the Vietnamese government to immediately release all people imprisoned for exercising their right to speech or for joining political or religious groups disapproved by the government. The measure would also express the Legislature’s solidarity with the people of Vietnam who have brought issues of human rights violations, environmental abuses, and censorship of the media to light.

WHEREAS, The United States government and the American people have a commitment to assisting individuals that fought as allies in the Vietnam War and continue to face persecution and threats from the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; and

WHEREAS, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has run a one-party state that violates the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in contravention of its status as a signatory to that agreement; and

WHEREAS, The Communist Party of Vietnam controls all public institutions through vague national security laws, censorship, and unjust arrests of peaceful protestors; and

WHEREAS, The strict controls on the media in law and in practice, restrictions against journalists, online censorship of blogs and other websites, and the severe crackdown against activists under the guise of cybersecurity hinder freedom of the press; and

WHEREAS, The Human Rights Watch published a review in 2018 that states “the government of Vietnam has shown little interest in improving its human rights record,” and “continues to restrict basic freedoms of expression, association, assembly, and religion”; and

WHEREAS, The people of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) and the United States found common ground in their shared principles of democracy and individual liberties, coming together to valiantly defend these tenets against communism; and

WHEREAS, The United States welcomed many Vietnamese refugees following the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, and today, the State of California is home to more than 500,000 Vietnamese Americans that enrich the social, cultural, and economic fabric of our state; and

WHEREAS, Refusing to forget their historical struggle for freedom and democracy, Vietnamese Americans throughout the United States and the State of California continue to speak out against the systematic assaults on the freedoms of speech and assembly perpetrated by the Communist Party of Vietnam and advocate in favor of human rights and democracy in Vietnam and worldwide; and

WHEREAS, The construction by the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, the Taiwanese conglomerate, of a of a steel manufacturing plant at the deepwater port of Ha Tinh faced major local opposition among the fishing communities and, after a devastating waste spill in 2016 that poisoned and killed fish en masse along a 120-mile stretch of coastline, demonstrated that, despite the government’s denial of any connection, free trade deals in places like Vietnam where the rule of law is weak that a lack of respect for the rule of law further make makes the life lives of the poorest harder and damage damages the environment beyond repair; and

WHEREAS, The 2018 proposal by the National Assembly of Vietnam to create Special Economic Zones that permit foreign entities, including the People’s Republic of China, entities to lease Vietnamese coastal land for 99-year terms could potentially erode the stability of the economy, natural resources, and domestic affairs of the country; and

WHEREAS, Those who peacefully march, speak, and write against these harmful acts and policies have been brutally suppressed by the authorities in the unjust arrests of Vietnamese citizens and Vietnamese Americans alike; and

WHEREAS, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has arrested at least 59 activists since 2016; and

WHEREAS, Among the dozens of prisoners of conscience is Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, a Vietnamese civil rights blogger by the pen name “Mother Mushroom,” whose daughter, nicknamed “Mushroom,” inspired her online pseudonym and creation of a blog post when, after a visit to the hospital, she witnessed the injustice on the part of staff who did not serve patients without adequate bribes; and

WHEREAS, “Mother Mushroom” wrote not only of the corruption at hospitals, but bravely voiced her concerns about the broad array of injustices in her country, ranging from the environmental degradation from mining to the economic repression from Chinese land confiscations; and

WHEREAS, In October 2016, “Mother Mushroom” was seized from her home, leaving behind her son and daughter, “Mushroom,” and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”; and

WHEREAS, William Nguyen, a Vietnamese American and graduate of Yale University, travelled to Vietnam on a trip where he shared on social media his participation in a peaceful protest in Saigon that turned violent when authorities began to strike protestors; and

WHEREAS, William Nguyen himself was captured, beaten, held without due process during his detention, and then coerced to admit to violations against the Communist government to be granted a more lenient sentence than seven years of prison, and was eventually released after 40 days in prison; and

WHEREAS, Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, a Vietnamese American from Orange County, California, went missing last month during his travel to Vietnam to visit with friends and was later discovered to have been imprisoned by the Vietnamese government under investigation of “activity against the people’s government,” but without a formal charge; and

WHEREAS, Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen is prohibited from having contact with his family and is limited to one visit per month from the United States Consulate while his case is pending indefinitely; and

WHEREAS, It is recognized in California and internationally that detaining anyone without probable cause or a formal charge is a violation of human rights; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature respectfully urges the President and the Vice President of the United States and the United States Congress to call on the Vietnamese government to immediately release all people imprisoned for exercising their right to speech or for joining political or religious groups disapproved by the Vietnamese government; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature stands in solidarity with the people of Vietnam who have brought issues of human rights violations, environmental abuses, and censorship of the media to light; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United States, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.