The case has been hanging fire in Vietnam for seventeen months: Too sensitive to prosecute and too sensitive to dismiss, it has twice been postponed. Thursday morning at 8:30 in Hanoi two Falun Gong practitioners who aired short wave broadcasts into China are finally scheduled to get their day in court, although they most likely will not get the chance to tell their story.
Vu Duc Trung and his brother-in-law Le Van Thanh were arrested on June 11, 2010 for the administrative offense of using broadcasting devices without a permit and the criminal charge of “transmitting information illegally into the telecommunications network.” They have sat in jail in Hanoi ever since.
The charges are a pretext. Vietnam’s prosecution of the two is in fact a matter of state, a kowtow to Vietnam’s giant northern neighbor, with whom Vietnam has disputes over territory on their shared border and in the South China Sea, and over navigation, fishing, and mineral rights, while relying on China for hundreds of millions of dollars in investments each year.
The official indictment, a copy of which was obtained by The Epoch Times, makes the political dimension of the prosecution clear. The indictment cites a May 30, 2010 memo from the Chinese Embassy to the Vietnam Ministry of Public Security. The memo stated that the People’s Republic of China had discovered radio broadcasts with “Sound of Hope” content going into China from Vietnam and suggested a “joint effort” to halt Falun Gong activity in Vietnam.
The long-postponed trial is a proxy for a much larger conflict. Since July 1999 the Chinese Communist Party has sought to “eradicate” the spiritual practice of Falun Gong, and the adherents of Falun Gong have sought in an act of moral jiu jitsu to turn the campaign against them back against the CCP. By educating the people of China about the lies and violence used against Falun Gong, practitioners seek to dissolve the legitimacy of the CCP and its ability to persecute the practice.
Trung, 31, the founder of a successful web-hosting company in Hanoi, and Thanh, 36, a cab driver, joined together to lend their hands to this peaceful campaign of resistance.
Falun Gong
Trung was the leader of the effort. Although of a serious turn of mind, in pictures there is always something a little whimsical about Trung’s smile, as though there is a joke that only he knows. Vietnamese Falun Gong practitioners say he speaks very persuasively and is a natural leader.
Trung discovered Falun Gong in 2007 by browsing the web. After reading the practice’s foundational book, Zhuan Falun, he began following its teachings and practicing Falun Gong’s meditative exercises.
In May 2009 Trung spoke at a Falun Gong conference held in Hanoi about how Falun Gong had changed him. In winter time he was accustomed to having chronic bronchitis for which he took high doses of antibiotics. In a case similar to the experiences of thousands of other practitioners, his annual bronchitis cleared up without medication.
Even though he had a wife and young children, he had earlier spent long hours at his computer playing video games, ignoring his family. He would sometimes be irritable and speak abusively. After he began practicing Falun Gong, his wife told him and his relatives that he changed “180 degrees.” Trung said that because of Falun Gong, he looked inside to improve himself, sought to remove selfishness, and to become a good person in society.
Trung introduced his brother-in-law Thanh to Falun Gong, who also experienced dramatic changes. Thanh had been in and out of prison due to narcotic use. After he began practicing Falun Gong, he gave up drugs. Practitioners in Vietnam describe him as compassionate, gentle, and shy.
Delighted in the changes in the two men, their families supported them in their practice of Falun Gong.
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