Category Archives: Vietnam

Will Trump’s tariff chaos be China’s gain in global trade wars?

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As China retaliates against tariffs, it is also making strategic manoeuvres on EU and Asia to maximise opportunities

On the basis of Napoleon’s dictum “never interrupt your enemy while they are making a mistake”, there was a large incentive for China to do precisely nothing as Donald Trump displayed his determination to lose friends and induce market panic. Indeed, the Chinese advocates of passivity cited a social media meme attributed to President Xi Jinping: “Do nothing. Win.”

Initially it was tempting for China to sit back and watch the US’s former allies recoil at Trump’s disruptive war on globalisation and let them realise that, by comparison, China represented an oasis of stability, modernity and predictability.

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How Trump tariffs could push Vietnam into the arms of China

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The move has sent shock waves through a region of US strategic importance that had respected Trump as tough on Beijing

Vietnam had tried to appease Donald Trump: tariffs on US goods were reduced; regulations were passed to allow Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch its Starlink in the country. The prime minister, Pham Minh Chinh, even joked in January that he would happily “play golf all day long” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida if it could “bring benefits to my country and my people”.

The strategies do not appear to have worked. Trump has inflicted an extraordinary 46% tariff on Vietnam that threatens to devastate its economic growth plans and undermine relations between the two countries. The tariff has sent shock waves through Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse where Trump has always been fairly popular, and across south-east Asia.

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Sales of Vietnamese doll plunge over face marking like China’s ‘nine-dash line’

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One version of Baby Three doll appears to bear a mark resembling the shape of the ocean border on which China bases its illegitimate claim to most of the South China Sea

Regional tensions over the South China Sea have tanked the sales of a popular children’s doll in Vietnam after it was put under investigation and accused of being unpatriotic because a design marking appeared to resemble China’s “nine-dash line”.

The Baby Three doll is Chinese-made and had reportedly been hugely popular among children and Gen Z in Vietnam earlier this year. Between September, when it first gained popularity, and December the dolls reportedly generated US$1.6m in sales.

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Bodies of British woman and South African fiance found in Vietnam tourist villa

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No evidence of physical trauma on Greta Marie Otteson and Arno Els Quinton, who were found in separate rooms

The bodies of a British woman and her fiance have been discovered in separate rooms at a tourist villa in Vietnam, police said.

The victims were named locally as Greta Marie Otteson, a 33-year-old Briton, and Arno Els Quinton, a 36-year-old South African, who were staying at the complex in Hội An in the central Quang Nam province.

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Vietnamese tycoon faces scramble to raise billions to avoid death sentence

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Truong My Lan must repay three-quarters of $12bn she embezzled from bank in a case that shocked the country

The Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan has lost her appeal against the death penalty for masterminding a multibillion-dollar fraud scandal – though she could still save her life if she can repay most of the funds she embezzled.

Lan, who founded the real-estate developer Van Thinh Phat, was sentenced to death in April for embezzling $12bn (£9.95bn) from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in a case that shocked the country.

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South African tiger farms illegally smuggling body parts, says charity

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Biggest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, Four Paws animal charity says

The largest tiger farms outside Asia are operating freely in South Africa, facilitating the illegal smuggling of tiger body parts, according to a report by an animal welfare charity.

Research by Four Paws, which is campaigning to shut down South Africa’s big cat industry, found 103 places in the country where tigers were kept in captivity in 2023 or 2024 or had been kept during the previous three years.

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China building ‘counter-stealth’ radar on disputed South China Sea reef, satellite pictures suggest

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Upgraded Triton Island outpost in the Paracel archipelago expands China’s surveillance capabilities in the region

The Chinese military is constructing a new counter-stealth radar system on a disputed reef in the South China Sea that would significantly expand its surveillance capabilities in the region, satellite imagery suggests.

Analysis by Chatham House suggests China is upgrading its outpost on Triton Island, on the south-west corner of the Paracel archipelago, building what may be a launching point for an anti-ship missile battery, as well as the sophisticated radar system.

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Bird flu outbreak kills dozens of tigers in Vietnam zoos

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The H5N1 virus killed 47 tigers, three lions and a panther at the My Quynh safari park and the Vuon Xoai zoo, according to state media

Forty-seven tigers, three lions and a panther have died in zoos in south Vietnam due to the H5N1 bird flu virus, state media reported.

The deaths occurred in August and September at the private My Quynh safari park in Long An province and the Vuon Xoai zoo in Dong Nai, near the capital Ho Chi Minh City, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported on Wednesday.

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Typhoon Yagi: dozens dead in Vietnam in region’s most powerful storm this year

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Weather agency warns of more floods and landslides after at least 49 people killed with 22 missing

Typhoon Yagi and the landslides and floods it triggered have killed dozens of people in Vietnam, the government said, as authorities on Monday warned of more flooding.

The typhoon was Asia’s most powerful storm this year and made landfall on the country’s north-eastern coast on Saturday. It has disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in several parts of the country, mostly in Quang Ninh and Haiphong, the government said in a statement issued late on Sunday.

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‘World’s largest’ piracy ring Fmovies shut down by police in Vietnam

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Major film studio group Ace spearheaded takedown of piracy operation that garnered billions of site visits yearly

An international anti-piracy coalition including major Hollywood studios has claimed victory over Fmovies, a large illegal streaming operation based in Vietnam.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (Ace), whose governing members include Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon and the Walt Disney Studios, announced on Thursday that it worked with Hanoi police to shut down Fmovies and affiliated sites. The illegal consortium, with sites including Bflixz, Flixtorz, Movies7 and Myflixer in addition to Fmovies, constituted “the largest pirate streaming operation in the world”, according to Ace, with more than 6.7bn visits between January 2023 and June 2024.

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Weather tracker: Typhoon Gaemi wreaks havoc in Philippines and Taiwan

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Half a million people evacuated, 21 deaths confirmed so far and capsized tanker in Manila causes huge oil spill

Typhoon Gaemi has been wreaking havoc, with the Philippines government forced to declare a state of calamity last week in its capital Manila, and flooding and at least three deaths in Taiwan. . Manila received more than 300mm of rainfall, with resulting floods reaching as high as one-storey buildings in places. More than half a million people have been evacuated or displaced, with 21 deaths confirmed so far.

Gaemi initially developed on Sunday as a tropical storm to the east of the Philippines and then tracked north-west, strengthening until it achieved typhoon status on Monday as it drew level with the northernmost tip of the Philippines. Despite not making landfall in the Philippines, the typhoon interacted with existing monsoon weather systems, worsening the already heavy rains across the island of Luzon and causing several landslides.

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Vietnam’s Communist leader dies aged 80 creating power vacuum

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Nguyen Phu Trong was one of the country’s longest-serving politicians and known for anti-corruption drive

Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist party and the country’s most powerful politician, has died aged 80, creating a power vacuum.

Trong died early on Friday afternoon “after a period of illness”, according to his medical team, state media reported.

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Six people found dead in Bangkok luxury hotel in suspected poisoning

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Bodies of three men and three women, two of whom were US citizens, discovered in locked suite at Grand Hyatt Erawan

Six people have been found dead at a luxury hotel in central Bangkok, in what authorities say could be a case of poisoning.

The bodies of three women and three men were found inside a hotel suite on the fifth floor of the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel by a hotel worker late on Tuesday afternoon.

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Putin arrives in Vietnam for state visit condemned by US

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Russian president’s trip comes after he signed mutual defence pact with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un

Vladimir Putin has arrived in Vietnam for talks with its communist leaders on the final stop of his two-nation tour of Asia after signing a defence pact with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

The Russian president’s plane touched down at Hanoi airport where he was met on a red carpet by Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and top party diplomat Le Hoai Trung.

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Four Vietnamese nationals arrested in London over people smuggling

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Joint UK-French investigation alleges group advertised small-boat crossings of Channel on social media

Four Vietnamese nationals have been arrested in London after an investigation into alleged people smugglers advertising small-boat crossings of the Channel on Facebook.

The joint UK-French investigation alleges the group shared posts aimed at the Vietnamese community and charged migrants thousands of pounds to make the crossing.

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Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in $27bn fraud case

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Truong My Lan found guilty of embezzling from Saigon Commercial Bank in case that was part of wider crackdown

A prominent property tycoon has been sentenced to death for her role in Vietnam’s biggest-ever fraud case.

Truong My Lan, the chair of the developer Van Thinh Phat, was found guilty of embezzlement, bribery and violations of banking rules on Thursday, in a case that has shocked the country. A total of $12.5bn (£10bn) was embezzled, the equivalent of almost 3% of Vietnamese gross domestic product, but prosecutors said on Thursday the total damages caused by the scam now amounted to $27bn.

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Vietnam loses its second president in two years amid concerns for political stability

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Vo Van Thuong has resigned after just over a year, as the country continues its ‘blazing furnace’ anti-corruption drive

Vietnam’s government has announced the resignation of its second president in as many years amid an anti-corruption drive, sparking concerns for the country’s political stability.

President Vo Van Thuong’s alleged “violations and flaws have negatively affected public perception, as well as the reputation of the party and the state”, state media reported on Wednesday, citing an announcement from the Central Committee of the Communist party of Vietnam. No further details of any alleged violations were released.

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Human rights in decline globally as leaders fail to uphold laws, report warns

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Human Rights Watch’s annual report highlights politicians’ double standards and ‘transactional diplomacy’ amid escalating crises

Human rights across the world are in a parlous state as leaders shun their obligations to uphold international law, according to the annual report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In its 2024 world report, HRW warns grimly of escalating human rights crises around the globe, with wartime atrocities increasing, suppression of human rights defenders on the rise, and universal human rights principles and laws being attacked and undermined by governments.

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Climate crisis is ‘not gender neutral’: UN calls for more policy focus on women

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Only a third of countries with climate crisis plans include access to sexual, maternal and newborn health services, UNFPA report finds

Only a third of countries include sexual and reproductive health in their national plans to tackle the climate crisis, the UN has warned.

Of the 119 countries that have published plans, only 38 include access to contraception, maternal and newborn health services and just 15 make any reference to violence against women, according to a report published by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Queen Mary University of London on Tuesday.

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Vietnam detains energy thinktank chief in latest arrest of environmental expert

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Ngo Thi To Nhien detained over charges of ‘appropriating documents’, a government spokesperson confirmed

Vietnam state media has confirmed the arrest of the director of an independent energy policy thinktank – the sixth expert working on environmental issues to be taken into custody in the past two years.

A rights group reported last month that Ngo Thi To Nhien, executive director of the Hanoi-based Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition (Viet), had been detained, although at the time there was no official confirmation.

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