In Vietnam, Repression Threatens Growth
A lack of democracy has an economic cost.
The price of dissent.
Photographer: STR/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
Vietnam's economy has been performing remarkably well in recent years. Unemployment is just 2.3 percent. Growth is expected to exceed 6 percent annually until 2019. Disbursed foreign direct investment is set to rise to more than $16 billion this year -- a record -- while manufacturing has been booming as companies shift production from China.
Yet even as its economy thrives, Vietnam's politics have been getting more restrictive, with dissidents getting sentenced to increasingly harsh prison terms. Although international criticism has had little effect, this repression is now threatening to curtail the country's hard-won economic progress -- and that may finally get the attention of the ruling Communist regime.