Vinhomes Central Park and Landmark 81, Vietnam’s tallest building are seen from the Saigon river in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam June 6, 2019. REUTERS/Yen Duong Acquire Licensing Rights
A Vietnamese court has sentenced an environmental activist to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud, just days after the government discussed protecting human rights with U.S. President Joe Biden during a state visit.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, director of an environmental advocacy group that she started in 2013 and ran until 2022, was convicted of tax evasion after trial in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday that lasted half a day, according to her lawyer Nguyen Van Tu.
“Hong pleaded guilty, and therefore the trial ended quickly,” Tu told Reuters by telephone.
The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply concerned” by the sentencing and reiterated calls on Vietnam to “release all those unjustly detained and to respect the right to freedoms of expression and association.”
The State Department praised the track record of Hong and said leaders like her played “a vital role in tackling global challenges.”
Hong was accused of dodging tax payments worth 6.7 billion dong ($274,488) during the 2012-2022 period, Thanh Nien newspaper cited the indictment as saying.
She was also made to pay a cash fine of 100 million dong, her lawyer said, adding that she has 15 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict.
“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton, co-director of The 88 Project charity.
“This is yet another example of the law being weaponised to persecute climate activists who are fighting to save the planet,” he said.
Biden left Vietnam on Sept. 11 after having upgraded diplomatic relations and sealed multiple deals with Hanoi’s leaders, drawing criticism from human rights organisations that accused him of sidelining issues of human rights.
Hong in 1997 became the first Vietnamese to visit Antarctica, was hailed by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2018 for mobilising “a youth-led movement to create a greener world”, and was awarded a grant from the first Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University that year.
The Thanh Nien report said Hong expressed her remorse and asked for leniency at the trial so that she could “return and continue to contribute to the society and the country.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on the Vietnam government to drop all charges against Hong and unconditionally release her.
“The Vietnamese authorities are using the vaguely worded tax code as a weapon to punish environmental leaders whom the ruling Communist Party deems a threat to their power,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW.
As of early this month, Vietnam was holding at least 159 political prisoners and was detaining 22 others pending trial, HRW said.
An undated photo shows rice paddies where rare earth processing factory is planned near Nam Xe mine in Lai Chau province in Vietnam. REUTERS
Vietnam plans to restart its biggest rare-earths mine next year with a Western-backed project that could rival the world’s largest, according to two companies involved, as part of a broader push to dent China’s dominance in a sector that helps power advanced technologies.
The move would be a step toward the Southeast Asian country’s aim of building up a rare-earths supply chain, including developing its capacity to refine ores into metals used in magnets for electric vehicles, smartphones and wind turbines.
As an initial step, Vietnam’s government intends to launch tenders for multiple blocks of its Dong Pao mine before the year’s end, said Tessa Kutscher, an executive at Australia’s Blackstone Minerals Ltd (BSX.AX), which plans to bid for at least one concession. She cited unpublished information from Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, which did not respond to requests for comment.
The auction’s timing could change but the government plans to restart the mine next year, said Luu Anh Tuan, chairman of Vietnam Rare Earth JSC (VTRE), the country’s main refiner and Blackstone’s partner in the project.
The proposed restart of Dong Pao – whose timeline, scale and degree of foreign financial support have not been reported previously – comes as many nations fret about their vulnerability to supply disruptions due to China’s stranglehold on strategic minerals and its disputes with the U.S. and its allies. Beijing this year imposed export curbs on minor metals used in semiconductors, which an influential Chinese policy adviser warned was “just a start”.
Vietnam has the second-largest rare-earth deposits, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. But they have remained largely untapped, with investment discouraged by low prices that are effectively set by China because of its near-monopoly on the global market. Visiting Hanoi this month to upgrade bilateral relations, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an agreement to boost Vietnam’s ability to lure investors for its rare-earth reserves.
In interviews with Reuters, 12 industry executives, investors, analysts and foreign officials described plans for Vietnam, including investments they said showed how talk of derisking supply chains to reduce reliance on China is translating into action. Some acknowledged the difficulties of forging a rare-earths hub but said the gambit could make Vietnam a viable player while assuaging strategic worries, even if China remained dominant.
Kutscher said Blackstone’s investment in the project would be worth around $100 million if it wins. She added that the company was talking to potential clients, including electric car makers VinFast and Rivian (RIVN.O), about possible contracts with set prices that would shield suppliers from fluctuations and guarantee buyers a secure supply chain.
Sealing such deals would address a hurdle faced by developers in Vietnam. In recent years, Japanese investors Toyota Tsusho and Sojitz abandoned projects at Dong Pao after China ramped up supply, pummelling prices. The Japanese firms did not respond to requests for comment.
Yet despite the focus on derisking, it is unclear whether clients would be ready to pay a premium for Vietnam, said Dylan Kelly, of investment firm Terra Capital, noting the market in general was opaque.
Asked about VinFast’s potential involvement, a spokesperson for parent company Vingroup said the group’s entity in charge of raw-material procurement, VinES, had no current plans with Blackstone involving rare earths. He did not address subsequent questions about VinFast specifically.
Rivian did not reply to a request for comment.
RIVALLING MOUNTAIN PASS
Effective exploitation of Dong Pao – which has sat dormant for at least seven years, according to an official at state-controlled miner Lavreco, which owns a concession – would propel Vietnam into the top league of rare-earths producers.
But refining rare earths is complex, and China controls many processing technologies. Dong Pao’s estimated deposits also need to be reassessed with modern methods, according to Blackstone.
Reuters Graphics
Still, rare earths at Dong Pao are relatively easy to access and are mostly concentrated in bastnaesite ores, according to the Hanoi University of Mining and Geology.
These are typically rich in cerium, used in flat screens, and lanthanides, such as praseodymium and neodymium, which go into magnets.
Tuan said VTRE hoped to win a concession that would allow it to extract about 10,000 metric tons of rare-earth oxide (REO) equivalent a year, roughly one-third of the mine’s expected annual output. Production could start around the end of 2024, he said.
That would put Dong Pao’s output slightly below that of California’s Mountain Pass, one of the world’s largest mines, which produced 43,000 metric tons of REO equivalent in 2022, according to the USGS.
Vietnam also plans to develop additional mines. In July, Hanoi set a target to produce up to 60,000 tons of REO equivalent a year by 2030. China set a domestic quota of 210,000 tons last year.
Those goals would see Vietnam producing 5% to 15% of China’s projected output by the decade’s end, said David Merriman, a research analyst at consultancy Project Blue, who expects China to increase production over that period.
Vietnam’s targets were “ambitious, though they are not entirely out of the question”, he said.
U.S. ENCOURAGEMENT
The U.S. agreed during Biden’s visit to help Vietnam better map its rare-earths resources and “attract quality investment”, according to a White House fact sheet, a move that could encourage U.S. investors to bid for Vietnam’s new concessions.
Reuters could not determine whether concrete plans involving U.S. investors exist at this stage. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, the White House and Department of Commerce did not reply to requests for comment.
But recent U.S. attempts to gain a foothold in the Vietnamese industry did not succeed, said John Rockhold, a consultant to the rare-earths sector and president of the Hanoi chapter of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, adding that one such plan involving VTRE collapsed this year.
That plan would have involved the shipment to the U.S. of rare earths refined by VTRE and possible future investment in Vietnam of $200 million, according to a non-public report for unspecified U.S. investors seen by Reuters.
VTRE confirmed the shipment deal had foundered.
Instead, VTRE in April announced a deal to supply 100 metric tons of rare-earth oxides this year to Australian Strategic Materials (ASM.AX). ASM declined to comment on Dong Pao’s exploitation.
Blackstone, which is a partner in that deal, operates a nickel mine in Vietnam and has determined that its processing facility in the country could handle ore from Dong Pao, according to a company statement.
I’ll just follow my orders here. Staff, is there anybody that hasn’t spoken yet? I ain’t calling on you, Joe Biden said during the presser. (Reuters file)
While addressing media in Vietnam following the G20 Summit, US President Joe Biden, in response to a question about why he hasn’t spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping, joked, “I tell you what, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go to bed.”
China and Russia’s respective presidents, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin did not attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
“I’ll just follow my orders here. Staff, is there anybody that hasn’t spoken yet? I ain’t calling on you,” Joe Biden said during the presser.
Biden also noted he does not want to “contain” China, as the two powers face deepening divisions on trade, security and rights.
The US President said he had met Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 summit in New Delhi and discussed “stability”. The meeting, however, was not announced by the White House.
“One of the things that are going on now is China is beginning to change some of the rules of the game, in terms of trade and other issues,” Biden stated.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday secured deals with Vietnam on semiconductors and minerals as the strategic Southeast Asian nation lifted Washington to Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status alongside China and Russia.
The U.S. has been pushing for the upgrade for months as it sees the manufacturing dynamo as a key country in its strategy to secure global supply chains from China-related risks.
A half-century after a lengthy and brutal Cold War-era conflict, Biden arrived in Hanoi to a ceremony organised by the ruling Communist Party that included school children waving American flags and honour guards carrying bayoneted rifles.
Biden noted the strides that had been taken toward improved ties.
“We can trace a 50-year arc of progress between our nations, from conflict to normalization, to this new elevated status,” he said.
The partnership with Vietnam is part of the Biden administration’s push “to demonstrate to our our Indo-Pacific partners and to the world, the United States is a Pacific nation and we’re not going anywhere,” Biden told reporters after the meeting in Hanoi.
On Monday, China released a “standard map”, which showed Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin as parts of Chinese territory. The distorted map also incorporated China’s claims over Taiwan and a large part of the South China Sea.
The Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam on Thursday joined India to reject the latest “standard map” released by China that shows other countries’ territories as its own.
In a strongly worded statement, the Philippine government said, “This latest attempt to legitimise China’s purported sovereignty and jurisdiction over Philippine features and maritime zones has no basis under international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).”
Notably, the map includes the nine-dash line, now a 10-dash line, that supposedly shows China’s boundaries in the South China Sea.
“(The 2016 Arbitral Award) categorically stated that ‘maritime areas of the South China Sea encompassed by the relevant part of the ‘nine-dash line’ are contrary to the Convention and without lawful effect to the extent that they exceed the geographic and substantive limits of China’s maritime entitlements under the Convention,” Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza was quoted as saying by the official Philippine News Agency.
“The Philippines, therefore, calls on China to act responsibly and abide by its obligations under UNCLOS and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” she further stated.
Meanwhile, Malaysia, whose maritime areas have been covered in the Chinese map, said it will send a “protest note” to China over the latter’s claims on the South China Sea.
