2018 Vietnam protests
| 2018 Vietnam protests | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Protests against democratic backsliding | |||
| Date | 9–17 June 2018 | ||
| Location | Across Vietnam, including:
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| Resulted in |
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| Lead figures | |||
No centralised leadership | |||
| Casualties | |||
| Death | 1 protester dead | ||
| Injuries | A few police officers and protesters | ||
| Arrested | ~200 | ||
The 2018 Vietnam protests, June 10 Events, or Protests against the Special Zone Act and the Cybersecurity Law (Vietnamese: Biểu tình phản đối Luật đặc khu kinh tế và Luật An ninh mạng), were a series of both violent and nonviolent protests that erupted across Vietnam in June 2018, chiefly in response to two drafted pieces of legislation: the Special Zone Act and the Cybersecurity Law.
The Special Zone Act (also known as the Special Zones Law or the Special Economic Zones Law) proposes the opening of three special economic zones (SEZs) across Vietnam, where foreign investors would be allowed to lease land for up to 99 years. Despite no specific mention of China within the lines of the bill, many Vietnamese feared that the SEZs would be dominated by China, leading to worries about the loss of national sovereignty. On 9 June 2018, the Vietnamese authorities eventually yielded under enormous public pressure and postponed voting on the law indefinitely.
The Cybersecurity Law has been described as “largely a copy-and-paste version” of the Chinese Cybersecurity Law that commenced a year prior. The National Assembly of Vietnam passed the law on 12 June 2018 despite local and international opposition and it has been in effect since 1 January 2019.