Vietnamese leader’s visit sparks protest in Houston

Vietnamese refugees were among a group of nearly 500 people who on June 25 protested against Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported the same day.

As Dung spent the day meeting with Texas business leaders in the hopes of securing new trade agreements, the demonstrators gathered outside a local mall chanting, “No freedom! No democracy! No trade!” They said the U.S. was compromising its democracy promotion efforts by doing business with the communist country.

“I don’t hurt anymore,” said 64-year-old Thu Tran Nguyen, a survivor of North Vietnamese concentration camps. “But my relatives, my countrymen need democracy.”

Tram Pham, 36, added: “We still have family living under this oppressive regime. If our voices aren’t heard in the United States, they’ll never see change.”

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