The ‘Chuyện với Thanh’ controversy claims another public figure as relentless online denunciations force an FPT executive off the air.
The Latest: At 4:00 p.m. on July 10, the Facebook page of Anh Trai Vượt Ngàn Chông Gai (Brother Overcoming Thousands of Thorns) posted a notice that Đinh Tiến Dũng would stop participating in the show.
- According to the program, the withdrawal was “at his personal request.” The announcement comes as Đinh Tiến Dũng is being publicly denounced on social media over his role in promoting Chuyện với Thanh, a book written by his FPT colleague Nguyễn Thành Nam.
Thirty minutes prior to the withdrawal announcement, the Anh Trai Vượt Ngàn Chông Gai fan page revealed that Episode 3 would be delayed by one week instead of airing on the evening of July 11 as planned.
- The show has not confirmed whether Đinh Tiến Dũng appears in that specific episode, though many images of him remain on the show’s fan page.
It remains unclear whether the development relates to the denunciation campaign by the “anti-history distortion” group targeting Nguyễn Thành Nam.
Social Media Backlash: Phan Trung Can—who initiated accusations that Nguyễn Thành Nam had “insulted President Hồ Chí Minh,”—stated that “‘Professor’ Cù Trọng Xoay, or Đinh Tiến Dũng, was the person who directly promoted Nguyễn Thành Nam’s Chuyện với Thanh to the public and fully understood how dangerous the book’s contents were to society.”
- “So how can the ‘Professor’ stand outside this?” Phan Trung Can asked.
- This post received more than 4,800 interactions. Most of the comments criticized or insulted Đinh Tiến Dũng and called for “VTV to ban him from the air.”
In recent days, several other accounts and fan pages have also participated in denouncing him.
About Đinh Tiến Dũng: Đinh Tiến Dũng, also known by his stage name, Professor Cù Trọng Xoay, is a well-known entertainment figure and currently serves as the creative director at FPT Software.
- In 2005, he joined FPT Corporation, where he was responsible for Communist Party development at FPT’s General Association.
- In 2009, he became the head of the organization department under the corporation’s Communications and Community Division.
- He was later appointed deputy head of Culture and Associations before becoming the head of the division in 2013-2014.
The controversy surrounds his promotional activities for Chuyện với Thanh, which was published by the Writers’ Association Publishing House in 2026.
- The author of the book—Nguyễn Thành Nam—was arrested on July 7 by Hà Nội police on charges of “making, storing, spreading or propagandizing information, documents, or items aimed at opposing the state.”
- The work is structured as a dialogue between Thanh, a Gen Z student indifferent to history, and a teacher named Thành. Through this framework, it reconstructs the journey of Hồ Chí Minh, then known as Nguyễn Tất Thành, during his years abroad.
The Background: Chuyện với Thanh previously drew mixed reactions and was accused of “rewriting history,” “insulting President Hồ Chí Minh,” and “insulting the Vietnamese nation” for choosing a different way to tell the story of Nguyễn Tất Thành.
- This wave of outrage began with individuals who were prominent in prior denunciations over The Sorrow of War and the Trương Vĩnh Ký event, namely former soldier Phan Trung Can and Lt. Gen. Nguyễn Thanh Tuấn.
Thành Phương wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on July 10, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights to the English translation.
