Security forces have not attempted to tear down the banners or hustle the peasants into police vans, as they might have in years past. The government's decision to endure the protest is the latest sign that Vietnam, long deemed one of the world's most repressive countries by human rights groups, is loosening up, according to diplomats and Vietnamese people. They're realizing that discourse is not the threat to stability they once believed. Now, the country's Catholic churches are filled for Mass. Buddhist pagodas have sprung back to life. Newspapers are no longer exclusively government mouthpieces.
Citizens are free to travel around the country and obtain visas to venture overseas.
And some intellectuals have criticized official policy without suffering repercussions. One of Vietnam's most famous authors, Duong Thu Huong, lashed out at the government in an interview in People magazine in April, before the 25th anniversary of the Communist victory over South Vietnam. Western human rights groups and the State Department acknowledge that Vietnam has improved its rights record in recent years, but they emphasize that it still does not meet international standards. Huong's comments notwithstanding, criticizing the Communist Party's authority still can result in a trip to jail. The protesting peasants, for instance, are not challenging the party's supremacy but what they claim is corruption and unjust treatment by provincial officials.