Climate campaigner Hoang Thi Minh Hong said she will continue her work but that it’s increasingly difficult to do so safely in her home country.
Vietnamese climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong, released from prison two years early by her government in September, has arrived safely in the US where she is seeking asylum.
Hong, along with a number of other Vietnamese climate activists, was charged in 2023 with “tax evasion,” a charge widely criticized as politically motivated.
Hong’s release came in a presidential pardon one day before Vietnam’s new Communist Party General Secretary, To Lam, also the president at the time, flew to the U.S. to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.
“My freedom is the result of numerous advocacy efforts by the U.S. government along with 15 other governments, dozens of networks and organizations and thousands of friends and environmental lovers around the world,” Hong said in a social media post after her release.
See Hong’s Instagram message to supporters on her arrival in the U.S.
Hong arrived at Dulles International airport in the US on 24 December, 2024 with her husband and son and is requesting political asylum.
“My freedom is the result of numerous advocacy efforts by the U.S. government along with 15 other governments.”
“I want to continue my environmental and climate work and I found it very difficult to carry out my plans in Vietnam,” she said. “I chose to move to the US so I can do the work I love and make positive contributions to society, but in a safer place, and with more opportunities and support.”
At 24, Hong became the first Vietnamese person to visit Antarctica, and as one of the country’s most prominent women climate leaders, she established an affiliate organization of global climate group 350.org. She later founded the nonprofit CHANGE VN, which campaigned to raise Vietnamese public awareness about climate change. She shut down the organisation in 2023 after the arrest of a number of environmental activists.
Prosecutors accused Hong of failing to pay $274,000 in taxes, which she was ordered to pay, along with a $4,000 fine. At the time of her release from prison, Hong said she pleaded guilty and her family paid back all the money demanded by the court.
Numerous governments, human rights and climate organizations and high profile individuals around the world campaigned for Hong’s release since she was sentenced. Almost 10,000 people from 55 countries signed petitions and pressured Vietnamese officials to call for her early release.
Authorities also released Vietnamese blogger Tran Huynh Duy Thuc on the eve of To Lom’s UN visit, eight months before the end of his 16-year sentence. Thuc told the media at the time that he refused a presidential pardon because he was innocent of the crime of “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government.”
See our related story about the imprisonment of Goldman Prize winning climate campaigner Nguy Thi Khanh.
Climate campaigner and Goldman Prize winner Nguy Thi Khanh was released from prison in May 2023 after being detained for 21 months. Khanh is credited with successfully hastening Vietnam’s move from polluting coal and raising related health and air quality concerns through her organisation, the Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID). She promoted a vision for the country based on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, drove the implementation of the country’s one million solar rooftop homes program and started the Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance.
Following her release, Khanh has continued to advocate for sustainable energy solutions in Vietnam. Her case and Hong’s highlight the challenges faced by most environmental activists in Vietnam.
In 2021, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh committed to reducing net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy at a UN climate conference in the United Kingdom. One year later the country announced it was entering into a Just Energy Transition Partnership with countries including the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Japan and Canada, and the European Union. The agreement came with a promise from international financial institutions to provide US$15.5 billion in loans, along with technical assistance to support the elimination of fossil fuels.
Shortly after, however, six prominent environmentalists, including Hong, Khanh, Dang Dinh, Mai Phan Loi, Bach Hung Duong and Ngo Thi To Nhien were arrested and received prison sentences of as long as five years on charges of tax evasion and appropriating documents. Mai Phan Loi has also been released.
A Crossroads for Climate Advocacy
“What has happened to Hong is part of a broader pattern of repression against climate defenders in Vietnam,” Liangyi Chang, 350.org Asia Managing Director said. “We stand in solidarity with other climate defenders who remain in prison in Vietnam, including Dang Dinh Bach and Bach Hung Duong.”
“What has happened to Hong is part of a broader pattern of repression against climate defenders in Vietnam.”
Increasingly, governments around the world are using legal frameworks to silence dissent, with sentences for environmental defenders growing ever more draconian. In the UK, Europe and Australia, climate protesters are facing unprecedented legal challenges.
Activists from groups like Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil have been handed prison sentences for acts of civil disobedience, such as blocking roads or disrupting public events, of up to four years, the longest sentence for non-violent protest in British history.
In the US, climate protesters have been labeled “domestic terrorists” under legislation originally designed to combat violent extremism. Protesters opposing oil pipelines, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, have faced decades-long sentences under felony charges.
China, Russia, and Turkey have intensified their suppression of environmental movements, often framing activists as threats to national security. In Russia, members of environmental organizations have been detained under charges of “foreign interference,” while Turkey’s government has targeted activists protesting hydropower projects, accusing them of inciting unrest.
Human rights organizations warn that these crackdowns risk creating a chilling effect on environmental advocacy in countries around the world.
