Environmental hero arrested
Vietnam’s state-controlled media recently reported that the Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi City Police Department has arrested Ms. Nguyen Thi Khanh – Director of the Green Innovation Development Center (GreenID) on charges of tax evasion.
Ms. Khanh was arrested in mid-January, but the information about her arrest has only been provided to the press by the police recently.
GreenID’s website describes Ms. Khanh as follows: “Mrs. Nguy Thi Khanh is a pioneering leader of the environmental movement in Vietnam and has played an important role in Vietnam’s transition from fossil energy towards renewable energy and energy efficiency. Ms. Khanh’s breakthrough strategy focuses on promoting Vietnam’s clean energy economy, protecting clean air and clean water, contributing to ensuring public health, and sharing lessons with partners in Southeast Asia to usher in a clean energy era for the region.” In 2018, Ms. Khanh was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, becoming the first Vietnamese to receive this noble award.
Ms. Khanh’s arrest has come as a shock to environmentalists as well as entire civil society groups in Vietnam. Ms. Khanh’s arrest is the next move by Vietnamese police against civil society groups. Previously, Vietnamese police arrested journalist Mai Phan Loi, Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Media Education Center (MEC), and on January 11, 2022, Mr. Loi was sentenced by a Hanoi court to four years in prison. On January 24, jurist Dang Dinh Bach- Director of the Center for Legal Policy Research & Sustainable Development (LPSD) was also sentenced to five years in prison. It is worth mentioning that both Mr. Loi and Mr. Bach were arrested and charged with the same crime as Ms. Khanh – tax evasion.
Just an excuse
People in Vietnam probably know that, with confusing and overlapping regulations and corruption in the public apparatus, it is very difficult for decent businesses to survive. For civil society organizations like GreenID, it is even more difficult. In a recent workshop organized by the Stimson Center (USA), Ms. Khanh raised concerns that due to the lack of a clear and complete legal framework, civil society organizations such as GreenID are very vulnerable as Vietnam’s authorities may criminalize their activities.
For that reason, most people who know the story believe that the arrest of Ms. Khanh or similar people on charges of tax evasion is just an “excuse” for the police to eliminate these people for unknown purposes.
Let’s take a look at the cases prosecuted for tax evasion that has been widely reported in the press recently, we will be able to make a judgment.
In addition to the incident involving Mr. Loi and Mr. Bach, a tax evasion case quite a long time ago involving lawyer Le Quoc Quan – a dissident who was highly critical of the Vietnamese government and the Communist Party, Therefore, the Vietnamese security agency in a noisy arrest, then sentenced Quan for tax evasion.
Another famous and influential lawyer who was also prosecuted for tax evasion, but given a suspended sentence, is attorney Tran Vu Hai.
In all of these arrests and prosecutions for tax evasion, there are political issues behind them.
For Mr. Mai Phan Loi and Dang Dinh Bach, the Vietnam Committee for the Protection of Human Rights (VCHR) based in Paris, France on July 8, 2021, issued a press release stating that the arrest of journalist Mai Phan Loi and the Vietnamese government jurist Dang Dinh Bach are measured to prevent the formation of the ‘Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) which includes independent civil societies under the provisions of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). Therefore, the Government of Vietnam has “taken action first” to prevent these groups from having activities to combat and expose the regime’s wrong acts to the international public.
For attorney Quan, the arrest and conviction of a dissident like him is a “silence of public opinion” in the face of criticisms against the Vietnamese Government and the Communist Party. Vietnamese security took action.
As for lawyer Tran Vu Hai, because he accepted the defense for Pham Nhat Vu (the younger brother of billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong) in the AVG corruption case, Hai had a lot of evidence of involvement of the “big bosses” so in order to prevent Hai from publishing this information, the Vietnamese security agency “takes action” to threaten first.
China’s hand?
So for Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh, what was the real purpose that led to Khanh’s arrest? When we learned that tax evasion was just an “excuse” for the Vietnamese security agency to “punish” Ms. Khanh.
Ms. Khanh and her organization – GreenID, unlike other activists, are not politically affiliated. Ms. Khanh is also a person with many connections to Vietnamese public authorities. However, during the last time, Ms. Khanh and her organization have continuously worked to combat activities that cause environmental pollution, typically coal-fired power plants.
In many articles, interviews, seminars, or on GreenID’s home page and on her personal FB, Ms. Khanh and GreenID have resolutely condemned and opposed continuing to build and operate coal power plants in Vietnam. Even Ms. Khanh and GreenID pointed out that, behind the massive coal power projects in Vietnam, it is Chinese businesses and organizations.
This is not strange to international environmental activists. “Clearly, China is the main investor for coal in Southeast Asia,” said Isabella Suarez, an analyst in the Philippines at the Center for Clean Air and Energy Research (CREA). If you look at the overseas investment profile of Chinese coal, then Indonesia, Vietnam are second and third in the world.”
China’s financial institutions include the China Construction Bank (CCB), Bank of China (BOC), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), and Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) ranked in the top 10 organizations providing finance for coal-fired power and top 10 organizations providing finance for coal mining. That’s the result of a report titled “Banking on Climate Chaos” released at the end of March by a coalition of international NGOs last year.
Ms. Khanh also raised many grievances on her FB at the sudden change of Power Plan 8, which returned to coal power despite wanting to give up earlier. Ms. Khanh is also one of the representatives of environmental groups that sent a letter of petition to the Prime Minister of Vietnam against the “scam” of the public authorities to approve the Power Plan 8.
Thus, there can be two possibilities: One is that the interest groups behind coal power projects in Vietnam (related to China) take action to “eliminate” those who stand in their way in this country; Second, it is not excluded that it is those in Beijing who “pulled the strings” for the Vietnamese police to destroy the “environmental heroes” but disrupted their interests in doing business through the Belt and Road (BRI).
Whatever the case may be, it will lead to the destruction of the environment of the country of Vietnam. And the act of arresting this environmental activist must be considered a crime when aiding in the destruction of the future of the country of Vietnam.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
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