When protests become a threat to authoritarian rule: the case of environmental protests in Viet Nam

Abstract

This paper argues that the decision of an authoritarian regime to use repression depends both on the repressing agent and the costs as well as the threat perception. This is illustrated in the comparison between two environmental protests in Viet Nam. In 2015, the Vietnamese press reported that police had used tear gas against protesters opposing massive pollution by the Vinh Tan 2 thermal power plant but later treated the violent protesters with leniency. In contrast, the 2016 protest against the Formosa Ha-Tinh Steel Corporation was widely censored in the press and numerous peaceful protesters were arrested and harshly punished. The Vinh Tan case was not perceived as a threat and the costs of repression were judged to be high, while in the case of Formosa, the initial denials of responsibility raised the costs for the regime and the movement that emerged eventually was perceived to be a threat to the regime.

Keywords:

• Repression
• environmental protests
• authoritarianism
• pollution
• Viet Nam

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the support of his research assistants Chik Ting Wan and Hien Nhan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of the University Grants Committee under Grant 21609618.

Notes on contributors

Stephan Ortmann

Stephan Ortmann is Assistant Professor in the School of Arts and Social Science, Department of Social Sciences, of the Hong Kong Metropolitan University. He earned his PhD degree in political science from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in 2008. His publications have appeared in many academic journals including Asian Survey, China Quarterly, Journal of Democracy, Pacific Review, State and Society, Society, Government and Opposition, and Asian Studies Review. He is also the author of the monographs Politics and Change in Singapore and Hong Kong: Containing Contention (Routledge, 2010) and Environmental Governance in Vietnam: Institutional Reforms and Failures (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).