Vietnam’s arrest of reformist labor official could disturb bid for better trade terms with the US

BANGKOK (AP) — A senior Vietnamese official with the country’s labor ministry was arrested for “deliberately disclosing state secrets,” police announced on Thursday, a development that analysts say could hurt Vietnam’s efforts to obtain more favorable trade terms for exports to the United States.

There were no further details about lawyer Nguyen Van Binh’s arrest — beyond the announcement on the website of the police in the capital of Hanoi — but rights activists allege he was detained because he supported the idea of independent trade unions, banned under the Communist government.

They also say it’s a sign of continuing repression, which was previously directed mainly toward bloggers, environmentalists and civil society groups.

Binh who headed the Legal Affairs Department at the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, could face between two and 15 years in prison for disclosing state secrets under the law in this single-party, authoritarian state.

A brief profile of Binh on a website of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development last year said the 51-year-old lawyer has also worked for the U.N.'s International Labor Organization.

His arrest was first reported earlier this week by The 88 Project, a small multinational organization that monitors and promotes human rights and civil liberties in Vietnam. It described Binh as a reformer who supported independent trade unions.

“Binh’s arrest comes amid a new wave of repression in Vietnam,” the group said in its report, dated Monday. It said Binh’s arrest was “the first arrest of a government reformer in recent years.”

The 88 Project in February published what it described as a secret 2023 national security directive of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party