As authorities advance a massive $28 billion urban redevelopment project along the Red River, anxious residents facing relocation are invoking the deadly 2020 Đồng Tâm land dispute online—only to see their warnings rapidly silenced.
The Latest: In recent days, several accounts in Facebook groups dedicated to Red River residents have posted and shared articles referencing the controversial 2020 Đồng Tâm land seizure case in the former Mỹ Đức District of Hà Nội.
However, residents are deeply divided over these references, and most of the posts were swiftly deleted shortly after they were published.
The Details: In the Facebook group “Đại lộ Sông Hồng – Thành Phố Ven Sông – Chia Sẻ Thông Tin,” which hosts more than 77,500 members, one account reposted a screenshot regarding the Đồng Tâm case.
- The post claimed that at 3 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2020, “3,000 fully armed elite troops” cut power and internet connections to isolate residents, then stormed in at night to forcibly seize land from an elderly man who had been a Party member for 50 years.
- The post emphasized that many people had followed online opinion shapers and “dirty media” and therefore called Lê Đình Kình a terrorist.
Both the original post and the repost were subsequently deleted, though reporters from Luật Khoa Magazine captured screenshots.
In another group, “Hội Cư dân Hà Nội- Quy hoạch Thành Phố Sông Hồng; Hồ Tây,” which has 29,000 members, an account named Nguyễn Bích Phương referenced the Đồng Tâm case as a lesson to rebut another post advising residents not to incite violence in land disputes.
- The account stated that Đồng Tâm showed that conflicts and disagreements do not always resolve through fair dialogue and mutual respect.
- The user argued that senior leaders are the ones who “hold power and have the ability to push things to an irreversible extreme,” rather than ordinary, vulnerable residents.
- The post concluded that if leaders “listen to and resolve people’s legitimate aspirations, then surely no force can incite public sentiment.” The account noted this post had previously been uploaded to another group but was deleted immediately.
Other Posts: There were also posts referring to Lê Đình Kình as a bad example, urging residents to “stay calm and not listen to hostile broadcasts.” Other posts reminded residents to filter information carefully and beware of “reactionaries” inciting them.
Additional users also began appearing in Facebook groups calling on residents to “remain extremely calm and not make statements insulting the state’s planning policy” regarding the Red River project.
Additional Context: In early May 2026, Hà Nội authorities announced that they had agreed to gradually relocate and replan all residential areas outside the dike to serve the Red River Landscape Boulevard project.
Following this announcement, many people created Facebook groups to share information and express residents’ frustration and opposition to the project. Residents in affected areas have continuously sent petitions, open letters, personal appeals, pleas for help, and other writings while also hanging banners and slogans. Their central demands are no total clearance, priority for preserving villages and existing residential communities, and adequate compensation.
On Vesak Day, residents of Hải Bối ancient village in the former Đông Anh District wore matching shirts printed with slogans and visited village communal houses and pagodas to pray for divine protection over their neighborhoods. A nonprofit website called “Cộng đồng ven sông Hồng” has also recently appeared, aiming to equip residents with knowledge and guidance on how to file petitions.
On the morning of May 11, 2026, the Hà Nội People’s Council approved the investment policy for the Red River Landscape Boulevard project, with 100 percent of attending delegates voting in favor.
The project is a strategic megaproject for Hà Nội, aimed at advancing the redesign of urban space along the Red River and improving the quality of the capital’s central urban area.
It passes through 16 wards and communes, covers about 11,418 hectares, and has a preliminary total investment of about 736.963 trillion đồng, or $28 billion. It is expected to affect about 200,000 residents.
Compared with the previous policy, the new version removed three wards from the project area—Vĩnh Tuy, Hoàng Mai, and Vĩnh Hưng—and reduced total investment by about 118 trillion đồng, or $4.49 billion.
On May 27, state media reported that the Đại Quang Minh – THACO – Hòa Phát consortium, the investor of the Red River Landscape Boulevard project, had sent a document to the People’s Committee of Hà Nội proposing that the land clearance period be shortened to 2.5 months, triggering strong anger among residents.
Consequently, on May 30, the Government Office issued Official Dispatch No. 4975 to the chairman of the People’s Committee of Hà Nội, asking Hà Nội agencies to properly handle public information and outreach, as well as compensation, support, and resettlement when land is recovered, while ensuring residents’ rights and interests.
The Đồng Tâm Incident: The Đồng Tâm case in Hà Nội is considered one of Việt Nam’s most serious peacetime land disputes in terms of the police force mobilized, public attention, and lives lost.
In the early hours of Jan. 9, 2020, thousands of police officers from multiple units—including special forces, riot police, and investigators—coordinated with local forces to surround and attack thôn Hoành in xã Đồng Tâm, about 5 kilometers from the disputed land. According to independent citizen media and bloggers, before the attack, police cut internet access and jammed phone signals, and they did not notify residents.
Police forces stormed the village with tear gas, grenades, and explosives, beating residents, including women and elderly people. Authorities then entered the private home of Lê Đình Kình—considered the village’s spiritual leader—and shot him dead.
After the raid, three police officers were killed and nearly 30 people were arrested, most of them members of Kình’s family.
The attack was the peak of a prolonged land dispute over two adjacent plots in Đồng Tâm.
One plot, on the eastern side, had been slated for compensated land recovery in 1980 for the Miếu Môn airport project. Local residents had agreed to transfer that land, but the project was not carried out, and the military later leased the land back to residents for farming.
The dispute escalated when the military planned to reclaim that plot and the remaining western plot to transfer them to Viettel. Đồng Tâm residents opposed the move, stating the western plot was their agricultural land and that Viettel or the military had to compensate them at market prices. The military and Viettel, however, said they had separately planned both plots for national defense and security purposes and had only accepted a lower compensation level.
The Aftermath: On Sept. 7, 2020, the first-instance trial opened in Hà Nội.
The court sentenced Lê Đình Công and Lê Đình Chức, Kình’s two sons, to death; Lê Đình Doanh, Kình’s grandson, to life in prison; and other residents attacked in the raid to more than a combined 80 years in prison on charges of “murder” and “resisting officers on duty.”
Looking back, Đồng Tâm was not the only serious case stemming from residents resisting state land seizures. Other cases include Văn Giang in 2012 and Đoàn Văn Vươn in 2012.
Lê Sáng wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on June 2, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights to the English translation.
