Vietnam steps up arrests of activists, dissidents under broad laws, rights group says

A new report by human rights organisation The 88 Project says Vietnam is increasingly relying on broadly framed criminal laws to detain activists, dissidents and other critics viewed by authorities as threats to Communist Party rule, documenting a continued rise in politically related arrests during 2025.

According to the report, 56 such arrests were recorded, marking the third consecutive annual increase and double the number documented in 2022. The group said the figure only includes cases in which those arrested could be identified by name and their cases tracked, adding that the true number is likely to be significantly higher.

Report links crackdown to Communist Party leadership

The report alleges that Vietnam, under Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, "routinely weaponizes criminal law" to suppress dissent. Lam, formerly the country's top security official, has served as the party's general secretary since 2024 and was also elected president earlier this year.

According to the report, many of the arrests are driven by concerns within the leadership over the possibility of a so-called "colour revolution", similar to Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution or the 1986 Yellow Revolution in the Philippines.

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The report also noted that China has faced similar allegations of using legal measures to suppress critics. It added that despite periodic tensions over competing maritime claims, China and Vietnam agreed earlier this year to jointly "prioritise political security and enhance efforts to prevent and resist colour revolutions", according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.

"With the ascendancy of To Lam, the country has become a literal police state that tolerates no dissent," Swanton said.

"This represents a serious regression from the period of relative openness in the 2010s when some dissent was tolerated and civil society groups were able to engage in policy activism."

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry did not comment on the report's findings.

Article 331 increasingly used against critics

The report found that authorities are making greater use of Article 331 of Vietnam's penal code, which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years for anyone found to "abuse democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state".

Human Rights Watch said in a report last year that authorities had expanded the use of Article 331 beyond democracy and human rights activists to include people raising grievances against the Communist Party and government officials.

"The Vietnamese authorities’ increased use of Article 331 is a little known facet of the government’s expanding crackdown on ordinary people who are seeking to use social media and other peaceful means to publicly raise important social issues, including religious freedom, land rights, rights of Indigenous people, and government and Communist Party corruption," Human Rights Watch wrote.

Activists, writers and campaigners among those arrested

Among those cited by The 88 Project were three men behind the YouTube channel "Nguoi Da Tin" — The Messenger — who were accused of uploading "distorted content" that violated Article 331.

The report also documented the arrest of a Montagnard activist extradited from Thailand, a dissident writer accused of spreading "propaganda against the state", and a man who helped residents in Ha Tinh province file complaints seeking fair compensation for land acquired for a new highway.

"The Vietnamese government has dealt alarmingly severe punishments to longstanding targets like journalists and human rights activists, while displaying an increasing willingness to attack groups previously thought safe, such as political exiles and legal petitioners," the report said.