Vietnam Dusts Off Subversion Law to Jail Human Rights Lawyer

Go here and here for background on the story.

Government crackdown on democracy across Asia appears to be on the rise. This Vietnam court's ruling comes amid greater tension between Google and the Chinese government after google.ca was hacked last month and the ongoing unrest in Iran, not to mention current trends in Russia (see here). In Iran, nine more pro-Mousavi were sentenced to death recently after being labelled "enemies of God" for what many claim was peaceful protest.

Is this, as some pundits like to say, evidence of what can happen around the world when US power declines while countries like China move at speed toward the #2 spot in terms of economic power? There is, of course, the real, if unsatisfying, possibility that all of these developments are unrelated.

I don't necessarily put much faith in either of those explanations. My take is that these are the fruits of economic volatility. As the economic and political situation in a country become shakier, democratic ideals seem to follow closely behind. In the Economist's take on the Vietnam ruling, the writer even mentions that openness in Vietnam follows a kind of boom-and-bust cycle, at about the same rate the world economy does. He isn't intending to make the same point as I am, but I think the analogy is meaningful.

But how does this model explain what's happening in China, though? In a word: it doesn't. In the case of China, I would chalk up its recent hubris over internet freedom. arms sales to Taiwan, and President Obama's upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama to its impressive economic success during this recession. Indeed, most of the things it is chest-thumping over now are not new developments.

What do you think?