The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) is pushing to formally criminalize “propaganda against the Communist Party” by establishing a standalone offense in the revised Penal Code, declaring the Party a “particularly important entity that must be protected.”
Latest Developments: The proposal is embedded within the Draft Policy Dossier for the Penal Code, which remains open for public consultation from April 17 to May 7. On page 17 of the submission, the MPS explicitly argues for classifying “propaganda against the Communist Party of Vietnam” as a newly defined act that is “dangerous to society.”
The Details: In its implementation report (page 27), the MPS says that Article 117—the law used to prosecute making, storing, or spreading anti-state materials—only clearly covers acts “against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It does not legally define acts of “propaganda against the Communist Party of Vietnam.”
To rectify the situation, the MPS proposes a two-pronged approach:
- Expanding the application of Article 117 to actively “combat and handle” anti-Party acts,
- Introducing entirely separate regulations to reflect the Party’s “role and importance” within the political system as a “particularly important entity that must be protected.”
Because the dossier is only a policy roadmap and not a formal legislative draft, the exact statutory definitions and specific provisions governing these anti-Party acts remain undefined.
Why It Matters: While the Communist Party is formally a political party, it constitutionally holds exclusive, unchecked leadership over the Vietnamese state and the armed forces.
Historically, enforcement of Article 117 has blurred the legal lines, failing to clearly distinguish between “opposing the State” and “opposing the Communist Party.”
Domestic state media routinely conflates the two, utilizing the catch-all phrase “opposing the Party and the State” when reporting on the numerous individuals who have been imprisoned for criticizing Communist Party leaders.
The Timeline: The complete draft of the revised Penal Code is expected to be released for broader public consultation in July 2026. From there, it will be submitted to the 16th National Assembly for feedback during its third legislative session, with final passage scheduled for the fourth session in 2027.
Hoàng Nam wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on April 23, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
