Key Events
- A Book Ban in Việt Nam Exposes the Machinery of Censorship;
- Current Development Drive Leaves Citizens Fighting to Save Homes, Farms and History;
- National Exam Dispute Turns “Emancipatory Education” into an Ideological Target;
- Việt Nam Defends Press Freedom as Newspapers Disappear;
- Fortune Names Việt Nam Southeast Asia’s Breakout Growth Engine.
Việt Nam’s Book Ban Shows How Censorship Keeps History Under State Control
A book about Hồ Chí Minh has become the latest test of how far Việt Nam will go to police historical memory—and how quickly a cultural controversy can turn into a campaign of censorship, punishment, and political intimidation.
Việt Nam’s Education Ministry has ordered universities, academies, and research institutes to report whether they have invited Nguyễn Thành Nam—former FPT CEO and author of “Chuyện với Thanh – Lời kể mới về ánh sáng” (“A story with Thanh – A New Account of Light”)—to teach, lecture, speak, or participate in academic activities.
The order came after the authorities recalled the book, suspended the Writers’ Association Publishing House for two months, fined it 100 million đồng ($3,800), ordered it to surrender nearly 424 million đồng in alleged “illegal proceeds,” and required all printed copies to be recalled and destroyed.
The case is no longer just about one book. It has become a warning to writers, publishers, scholars, universities, and cultural organizers that alternative ways of telling Việt Nam’s official history can trigger state sanctions, public denunciation, institutional erasure, and even calls for criminal prosecution.
The book, structured as a dialogue between a Gen Z student and a teacher, retells Hồ Chí Minh’s early years abroad, when he was known as Nguyễn Tất Thành. Its stated narrative approach—using conversational, current daily language to make history more accessible to young readers—drew accusations that it “distorted history,” “insulted President Hồ Chí Minh,” and “insulted the Vietnamese nation.”
The backlash began online, led by figures who have also publicly denounced other literary and historical discussions, including debates around Bảo Ninh’s “The Sorrow of War” and a canceled cultural event on Trương Vĩnh Ký, a very well-known scholar who established the first magazine in Vietnamese, Gia Định Báo.
However, the controversy soon moved beyond social media as state-linked institutions acted. Media articles about “Chuyện với Thanh” disappeared, and that book listings were removed. The publisher apologized, stopped distribution, and pledged to recall the book. The punishment still followed.
And the pressure escalated.
At a Hồ Chí Minh City People’s Council session, delegate Trần Thành Trọng urged the authorities to coordinate with Hà Nội Police and the Ministry of Public Security to “review, verify, investigate, and handle” the case. He suggested that if the authorities found the alleged conduct to be repeated and intentional, they could prosecute Nguyễn Thành Nam.
Việt Nam’s censorship apparatus not only bans books after publication. It also creates fear before the next manuscript is written, before the next seminar is organized, before the next academic invitation is sent.
The state’s message is unmistakable: history may be studied, but not freely reimagined; Hồ Chí Minh may be praised, but not humanized outside official boundaries; young people may be encouraged to learn history, but only through narratives sanctioned by power.
The banning of “Chuyện với Thanh” is not just a publishing dispute. It is a struggle over who gets to tell Việt Nam’s history—and whether memory belongs to society or to the state.
Land Seizures Turn Farms, Homes and Graves into Clearance Zones in Many Parts of Việt Nam
Across northern Việt Nam, development is arriving not as a promise, but as an ultimatum.
From a Trump-backed golf resort in Hưng Yên Province to the Gia Bình airport project in Bắc Ninh and the Red River megaproject in Hà Nội, residents are being asked—or ordered—to give up farmland, homes, ancestral villages, and even burial grounds for projects promoted as symbols of national progress.
Farmers in Hưng Yên have received eviction notices to make way for a $1.5 billion Trump Organization-branded luxury golf resort. The project, spread across about 900 hectares along the Red River, is expected to include golf courses, hotels, and residential estates. Local authorities have warned residents that enforcement will begin if they refuse to surrender their land.
One farmer told Bloomberg that her family is losing 540 square meters of fruit-tree land that has generated up to 100 million đồng (about $3,800) a year and supported her family for decades. The compensation offered: about 320,000 đồng per square meter.
Việt Nam’s new development race is not only about infrastructure. It is also about who pays the human cost when political ambition, foreign investment, APEC 2027 summit deadlines, and luxury real estate converge.
In Hà Nội, a resident affected by the Trần Hưng Đạo Bridge project said her family’s compensation was reduced from an expected 470 million đồng to just 15 million đồng. She said her family had already drawn a resettlement lot before receiving a final decision that wiped out the earlier arrangement. Among the 51 households affected in the first phase, 12 received no compensation.
In Bắc Ninh, residents in the Gia Bình airport project area were told through a commune notice posted at 2:41 p.m. on June 24 to finish dismantling assets and hand over cleared land before 4 p.m. the same day. The airport, managed by the Ministry of Public Security, is projected to require an investment of about 196.378 trillion đồng and is expected to reclaim nearly 1,885 hectares of land, affecting thousands of households.
The pressure is also spreading through Hà Nội’s Red River communities. Residents facing the $28 billion Red River Landscape Boulevard project have marched in matching red shirts, asking to preserve existing residential areas and warning that planning must not erase history. Police did not stop the marches but advised residents to return home and file petitions instead.
In Bồ Đề Ward, outrage grew after a social housing project broke ground on land that residents say should be used to house displaced communities. Instead, the apartments are reserved for officials, civil servants, and workers under the Office of the State President.
In short, Việt Nam’s land conflicts are no longer just isolated disputes over compensation. They reveal a governing model in which homes can vanish by administrative notice, villages can be erased for prestige projects, and ordinary citizens are told to petition after the bulldozers have already arrived.
Việt Nam’s Education Ministry Faces Backlash Over Stance on “Emancipatory Education”
Việt Nam’s Education Ministry has become the latest target of an ideological denunciation campaign after its answer key for the national high school literature exam appeared to endorse “giáo dục khai phóng” (emancipatory education)—a phrase critics have framed as a threat to socialist education.
On June 19, the ministry faced two waves of criticism after releasing the answer key for the national high school graduation exam in literature.
The first questioned whether the grading rubric was reasonable. By 9 p.m. that night, the ministry defended the approach, saying literature would be graded in an open manner that encouraged creativity while remaining consistent with moral and legal standards.
The second wave was more political. It targeted an answer to an essay prompt asking how Việt Nam could produce its own “Steve Jobs.” The answer suggested that the country should build an “emancipatory and creative education system.”
The backlash shows how even a phrase in an exam answer key can become politically charged in Việt Nam’s tightly controlled education environment, where debates over history, literature, and independent thinking are increasingly vulnerable to ideological policing.
The controversy intensified because, earlier that same day, the State Organization and Labor Journal — a publication under the Ministry of Home Affairs — published an article warning against what it called the “peaceful evolution” strategy in education and training.
The article criticized “Western-style emancipatory education,” portraying it as politically dangerous, overly individualistic, detached from class politics, and harmful to the socialist character of Việt Nam’s education system.
The article was later removed. Luật Khoa Magazine said it could not verify when the removal happened.
But the argument continued to circulate online. On June 20, a Facebook account named Phan Trung Can reposted the full article and urged Education Ministry leaders to read it.
The post drew more than 2,000 reactions and nearly 500 shares. Phan Trung Can has previously been prominent in denunciation campaigns against Bảo Ninh’s novel The Sorrow of War, a canceled discussion on Trương Vĩnh Ký, Nguyễn Thành Nam’s book Chuyện với Thanh, and the absence of the terms “puppet troops” and “puppet regime” in a history exam.
Across Facebook and Threads, users cited the deleted article as evidence that the Home Affairs Ministry was “warning” the Education Ministry over the exam answer.
The dispute is not only about one exam. It is about whether Việt Nam’s schools are allowed to encourage creativity and open inquiry — or whether even the language of educational reform must pass an ideological loyalty test.
As State TV Defends Press Freedom, HCMC Silences Its Newspapers
Việt Nam’s state broadcaster tried to defend the country’s press freedom. The public responded with laughter.
On June 24, VTV4, the foreign-language channel under Vietnam Television, posted a news segment titled “What Is the Purpose Behind Distorted Narratives About Press Freedom in Việt Nam?”
The segment accused “ill-intentioned” outlets of using Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index to “smear Vietnamese journalism” and support “reactionary activities.”
But the public reaction was quite different. By 9 a.m. on June 26, the Facebook post had drawn more than 3,400 interactions, including more than 2,300 “haha” reactions. Users could not read more than 200 comments under the post.
The ridicule spilled onto other platforms. On Threads, users called on VTV to take concrete steps to prove that Việt Nam has genuine press freedom and that the press can objectively protect vulnerable people.
Others mocked the broadcaster by referencing disappeared public opinion surveys, censorship penalties, and the chilling effect of state control over online speech.
The backlash came as Việt Nam continues to rank near the bottom of Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index — 174th out of 180 countries.
RSF describes Việt Nam as a country where traditional media are tightly controlled by a single political party and where independent journalists and bloggers frequently face imprisonment.
The irony deepened one day later.
On June 25, several major newspapers in Hồ Chí Minh City published their final print editions after the city Party Committee issued Decision No. 863. The plan creates a new Press, Radio, and Television Agency by merging Tuổi Trẻ, Sài Gòn Giải Phóng, and Hồ Chí Minh City Radio and Television.
Eight other publications — including Người Lao Động, Phụ nữ TP. Hồ Chí Minh, Pháp luật TP. Hồ Chí Minh, Saigon Economic Magazine, and Saigon Entrepreneur Magazine — must stop publishing by June 30 and end operations by Aug. 31.
Readers and journalists mourned the closures as more than an administrative reshuffle. They warned that archives documenting Việt Nam’s economy, labor issues, gender debates, social policy, and LGBT community life could disappear with the newspapers themselves.
The city Party Committee acknowledged that the restructuring would affect journalists’ emotions and employment. It also ordered officials to monitor and refute “distorted and wrongful” views about the reorganization, freedom of speech, and press freedom.
Việt Nam’s press freedom debate is not abstract. While state television insists the press is free, newspapers are being shut down, archives are at risk, and public skepticism is being hidden behind locked comment sections.
Việt Nam Emerges as Southeast Asia’s New Corporate Growth Engine
Việt Nam has become the breakout growth story in Fortune’s 2026 Southeast Asia 500, signaling a shift in the region’s corporate center of gravity as commodity and energy giants slow and a new class of companies gains ground.
Fortune’s annual ranking of the region’s largest companies by revenue shows a Southeast Asian economy moving in two directions at once. At the top, the energy and commodity firms that have dominated the list since its 2024 debut are losing momentum.
Below them, Vietnamese conglomerates, Singaporean banks, digital platforms, and restructured national carriers are capturing a larger share of regional revenue and profits.
Companies on this year’s list generated $1.88 trillion in revenue, up 3.4% from $1.82 trillion in the 2025 ranking. Total profits reached $150 billion, giving the region an 8% net margin.
Thailand and Indonesia had the most companies on the list, with 105 and 104, respectively. Singapore remained the region’s revenue leader, with its listed companies generating $657.5 billion, nearly 35% of the total.
But Việt Nam delivered the sharpest growth among major Southeast Asian economies. Vietnamese companies on the list generated $177.9 billion in revenue, up 10.5% — triple the regional average and the fastest growth rate of any country in the ranking except Cambodia.
Fortune said Việt Nam accounted for roughly a quarter of this year’s revenue growth across the Southeast Asia 500, despite representing less than 10% of the list’s total revenue base.
Vingroup, ranked No. 26, stood out as one of the list’s fastest-growing major firms. Its revenue jumped 69% to $12.8 billion, making it the only company in the top 50 to rank among the fastest growers.
Fortune noted that Vingroup’s role as a national champion was reinforced in 2025, when Việt Nam’s Politburo elevated the private sector as the economy’s “most important driving force.”
Singapore, meanwhile, remained the region’s profit powerhouse. DBS Group, OCBC, and UOB again ranked among Southeast Asia’s most profitable companies, with DBS leading the profit table at $8.4 billion. Sea also staged a major turnaround, nearly quadrupling profit to $1.58 billion as Shopee, Monee, and Garena posted record earnings.
Fortune’s ranking captures a region no longer powered only by oil, commodities, and state-linked giants. Việt Nam’s rise shows how fast Southeast Asia’s corporate map is being redrawn — and how much of its next growth story may come from the region’s emerging national champions.
Quick Takes:
Vietnamese Environmental Lawyer Đặng Đình Bách Freed after Five Years
Vietnamese environmental lawyer Đặng Đình Bách was released from prison on June 24 after serving a five-year sentence for tax evasion, a charge rights advocates said was used to silence his work against coal pollution.
Bách, founder and former director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, was arrested in 2021 as Việt Nam intensified pressure on environmental civil society groups. His imprisonment drew international criticism, including from U.N. experts, who called for his release.
His release ends one sentence but not the broader concern: Việt Nam’s climate advocates still operate under shrinking civic space.
Authorities Target Four People in 17-Day Speech Crackdown
An HCMC court sentenced Trương Anh Thư, 41, to five years in prison on June 25 under Article 117 for alleged anti-state propaganda. Prosecutors said she managed YouTube channels and posted four videos that “distorted history” and “defamed the people’s government,” but authorities did not publicly identify the channels. The case followed prison sentences for pastor Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng and Phạm Văn Chính, according to Phạm Thanh Nghiên, a prominent democracy advocate who now lives in the U.S. because of political asylum. The same day, Nghệ An police arrested Lê Thị Thủy, 58, under Article 331, accusing her of spreading false information and inciting residents during a land dispute.
Đà Nẵng Police Warn 79 People Over Facebook Interactions
Đà Nẵng police summoned, warned, and “educated” 79 people from June 10 to 20 over their interactions with “reactionary” Facebook pages, including “thoibao.de,” “Lê Trung Khoa,” and “Nguyễn Văn Đài.”
Police said the individuals had helped spread “toxic information” and were required to remove comments, leave groups, and sign pledges not to repeat the conduct. Authorities said they are preparing files to “handle” more than 20 others.
Public reaction was mixed, with some users supporting the move and others mocking it, asking whether online interactions have now become a crime.
Vietnamese General Faces Scrutiny Over Republic of Vietnam Terminology
Lt. Gen. Nguyễn Thanh Tuấn, a former head of the Vietnam People’s Army’s Propaganda and Training Department, is facing scrutiny after past footage showed him using terms he now criticizes. Tuấn recently condemned the Education Ministry for not using “puppet army” and “puppet government” in historical materials to describe the Republic of Vietnam. But a 2012 speech shows him referring to “the Republic of Vietnam government” and “the Saigon army.” Tuấn later said such terms may be appropriate in diplomatic or overseas Vietnamese contexts. The dispute highlights Việt Nam’s ongoing censorship and ideological battles over how history is officially narrated.
