Day: January 24, 2023

Vietnam is considering a law on defense and security industries that may pave the way for foreign companies to tap into the country’s burgeoning sector.

Up to now, only military-owned domestic companies are allowed to invest in the multi-billion-dollar industry that has witnessed rapid growth in recent years.

The Ministry of National Defense has “instructed relevant organizations to finalize the proposal for a bill on Defense and Security Industries and Industrial Mobilization,” state media quoted Senior Lt. Gen. Nguyen Tan Cuong, chief of the general staff and vice minister, as saying recently.

The bill will be passed on to the government to include in the agenda of the Vietnamese National Assembly, or parliament, for further discussion and approval, Gen. Cuong said in an interview at the weekend.

Officials and analysts have said that such a law, which offers a clearer legal framework and requirements, is urgently needed to boost the domestic defense sector.

Maj. Gen. Luong Thanh Chuong, vice chairman of the General Department of Defense Industry, told the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper, that as Vietnam pursues a strategy to promote the “dual use” of defense technologies and equipment for both military and civilian purposes, businesses and private organizations are encouraged to invest in the defense industry.

The newspaper, which serves as the mouthpiece for the defense ministry, quoted unnamed Vietnamese arms manufacturers as saying that “all economic entities, including foreign-invested companies where foreign investors do not hold the controlling stake, should be allowed to take part” in the industry.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks global military transfers, Vietnam’s military spending increased nearly 700% to U.S.$5.5 billion between 2003 and 2018. 

GlobalData, a London-based analytics and consulting company, reported that Vietnam’s defense expenditure is estimated at U.S.$5.8 billion in 2022 and projected to grow at an annual rate of 8.5% to U.S.$8.5 billion by 2027, “mainly due to the country’s plan to increase its defense capabilities to counter Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.”

Vietnamese defense officials are unavailable for media requests and mostly communicate via pre-vetted interviews in the ministry’s publications.

Earliest approval

The Vietnamese defense ministry held the first international defense trade fair in December in order to give the arms sector a boost and at the same time diversify its weapons procurement.

Hanoi buys weapons and military equipment from 26 countries but Russia, its historical and traditional ally and also one of Vietnam’s four comprehensive strategic partners, remains by far the largest provider.

Domestic companies now make a number of products including infantry rifles and ammunition, logistics equipment, radars, drones and equipment for cyber defense operations.

A part of Z111, a Vietnamese leading arms factory, was developed with the technology from an Israeli firearms manufacturer, a model more companies could follow.

With a greater investment and technology transfer, the Vietnamese defense industry “could speed up the modernization process and become independent, as well as self-reliant,” said Maj. Gen. Doan Hong Minh, former chief adviser to the minister of defense on high tech weapons development.

“In order to modernize the industry it is essential to modernize the legal environment,” Minh told the Defense TV Channel, adding that he hoped the law on defense and security industries would be given the green light by the current parliament.

The 15th National Assembly of Vietnam (2021-2026) is expected to discuss a draft bill at its 6th session later this year and, if satisfactory, sign it into law at the 7th session in May, 2024. 

Fighting between junta troops and one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armies continued Tuesday morning after the Karen National Liberation Army and local People’s Defense Forces burned down a local administrative office in Kayin state, residents told RFA.

Combined anti-junta forces raided the office in Payathonzu town near the Thai border on Monday night. They set fire to buildings that house military intelligence offices, along with general administration, immigration and land registry departments.

“They started at 10 p.m. at night. Some offices were torched,” said a local who wished to remain anonymous. “Joint forces attacked and both sides are still fighting. The casualties are still not known, but the fighting intensified this morning. Almost all the offices were destroyed. The fighting mainly erupted because of anti-regime civil disobedience movement issues.”

Some residents fled the town Tuesday as fighting continued, the local said.

Neither side has released a statement about any casualties and RFA has not been able to independently confirm whether anyone was killed.

A local charity said two men were injured on Monday night.

The Karen National Liberation Army has refused to hold talks with the junta, saying there can be no negotiations unless they include the National Unity Government, ousted by the military nearly two years ago.

The KNLA and its political wing the Karen National Union have also said they oppose the junta’s plan to carry out a census and hold national elections this year.

Fighting between the two sides has forced more than 97,000 people to flee their homes in Kayin State, according to data compiled between Feb. 1, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2023, by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).

Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

Vietnamese blogger Le Anh Hung, serving a five-year sentence for allegedly “abusing democratic freedoms,” may soon be released from prison, his mother told RFA.

When Tran Thi Niem visited her son in mid-December he told her he expected to be freed in July.

Niem said her son has been moved from a Hanoi police detention center to a prison in Ha Nam province, south of the capital, to serve out his term and was in good spirits.

“Le Anh Hung is still healthy, but thin,” she said. “He is mentally refreshed.”

Authorities at Nam Ha Prison would not let Niem send a gift worth U.S.$40, telling her to transfer money to them which Hung could use to buy food. Prison canteens in Vietnam charge vastly inflated prices.

The Voice of America blogger and author of many articles on Vietnamese politics was arrested in July 2018.

After more than four years in detention and forced treatment in a mental hospital he was brought to trial on Aug. 30, 2022. Hung was denied a lawyer and relatives were not allowed to attend.

It is not clear if more than three years in a mental hospital will count towards time served, even though Vietnam’s Criminal Code stipulates: “The time for compulsory medical treatment shall be deducted from the term of serving the prison sentence.”

An article in the Vietnam Lawyers online magazine last year said there are different interpretations of how much time spent undergoing compulsory medical treatment can be deducted from the remaining sentence.

Lawyers who spoke to RFA disagreed about whether the law would work in Hung’s favor.

“If the investigation was not temporarily suspended, and the accused is still the defendant, the treatment time will be counted as the time of judgment execution,” lawyer Ha Huy Son of the Hanoi Bar Association said.

Nguyen Van Miem of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association said in Le Anh Hung’s case, the time spent in a mental hospital is unlikely to be included in time served. However, he said the court could consider mitigating factors to reduce the sentence.

Le Anh Hung is a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, an organization that has been persecuted in recent years. Chairman Pham Chi Dung, Vice Chairman Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Editor Le Huu Minh Tuan have been sentenced to between 11 and 15 years in prison for “conducting anti-state propaganda.”

After Hung’s conviction, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement calling on the Vietnamese government to immediately and unconditionally release him and “stop harassing journalists on spurious anti-state charges.”

He is among 21 journalists being detained for journalistic activities in Vietnam, according to a recent CPJ report.

Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.

In a reflection of the influential role that China plays in the region, leaders from both Myanmar’s ruling military and the anti-junta National Unity Government – essentially enemies – praised China over the Lunar New Year weekend, competing for their neighbor’s blessing.

Junta chief Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said that China had been an important and good neighbor, while the shadow Unity government sent a message through diplomatic channels saying that it could “guarantee that the fruits of their revolution’s success will not harm the interests of regional countries, including China, but give even more benefits.”

China is an important economic partner and shares a border with Myanmar. It also wields a powerful veto on the five-member U.N. Security Council, which both the junta and the shadow NUG hope Beijing will leverage to their advantage. 

China’s U.N. delegation, for example, has prevented meaningful sanctions from being imposed on Myanmar since the military took control in a February 2021 coup, or hold the junta accountable for human rights violations against its own people.

Analysts said that the NUG appears grateful that China did not veto the Dec. 21 Security Council resolution calling for the release of political prisoners by the junta, including imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

The resolution also called on the army to stop violence against civilians and implement the five-point consensus for peace in Myanmar adopted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 

Trying to keep China from supporting opponent

Rather than seeking an outright partnership with Beijing, both sides may be trying to keep China from joining their opposition, political analyst Ye Tun said.  “It is not bad for them if China at least stays neutral,” he said. “They are trying to have China not be on the opposing side.”

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-junta Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies accused the NUG of pulling “a political stunt by thanking China for not vetoing the Security Council resolution. China knows very well who is ruling Myanmar and who to associate with.”

According to data from the Institute for Strategic Studies, which monitors China-Myanmar relations, three new trade channels have emerged between the two countries since the coup. 

One trade route links China’s Sichuan province through Yangon and to Singapore, connecting Chinese exports to infrastructure to the Indian Ocean. A second route links Chongqing province with Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, while the third is a water route connecting Guangxi province through ports in the Bay of Beibu in the South China Sea. 

The institute said that the new economic channels will enable China to solidify its long-awaited access to the Indian Ocean and spread its geopolitical influence across Myanmar. 

China is Myanmar’s largest trading partner since the coup, with Chinese trade accounting for more than U.S.$4.4 billion out of Myanmar’s total U.S.$17 billion between April and September.

Hla Kyaw Zaw, a China-based analyst of China-Myanmar relations, views China’s policy as a multifaceted approach.

“China is gradually cooling down the hot areas of Burma. But what they can’t persuade is the military,” he said. “China’s diplomacy is usually done quietly. It doesn’t hurt other parties by not doing things like objecting or condemning. Its approach is multifaceted, and it will deal with the junta, NUG, and ethnic armed groups along the border as well.”

RFA contacted the NUG Foreign Minister and President’s offices for comment on the NUG’s relationship with China but did not hear back. 

Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Edited by Nawar Nemeh and Malcolm Foster.