Economic woes may lead to restrictions of democratic freedoms in Viet Nam

Viet Nam’s leaders appear to be cracking down harder on dissent as the country continues to struggle with labor strikes and rising inflation, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

According the article, political analysts believe that hard-line conservatives inside the governing Communist Party Politburo are using the inflation issue to justify more aggressive tactics against government criticism. The return to such an approach, exemplified by last month’s arrest of two Vietnamese investigative journalists, may stem from the conservatives’ growing nervousness with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s attempts to open up Vietnamese society.

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