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Also in November, representatives Tom Davis (R-Va.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), and Royce unveiled House Resolution 427, a document produced by the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam. H.R. 427 calls on the State Department to designate Vietnam a CPC for "egregious, systematic and ongoing abuses of religious freedom."

Once so designated, a country faces sanctions that could include economic sanctions on trade or aid.

Last year Secretary of State Colin Powell declined to designate Vietnam a CPC. In a report forwarded to the House International Relations Committee last January, the State Department said Vietnam was making progress in human rights.

Activists disagree vehemently. Shea, who is also director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, told a congressional panel in October: "Vietnam ranks among the most repressive governments in the world with respect to religious freedom. Local officials are allowed to employ the most barbaric means of their choosing to carry out national directives to suppress the Christian religion among the Hmong. Higher ups in Hanoi simply look the other way and maintain plausible deniability."

Activists are also lobbying for passage of the Vietnam Human Rights Act (H.R. 1950), which would prohibit non-humanitarian aid to Vietnam until the government stops violating the rights of its people.

Activists also want to pass the Freedom of Information Act in Vietnam (H.R. 1019), which would combat the Vietnam government's jamming of Radio Free Asia and safeguard access to the RFA's Internet sites.

The Vietnam Human Rights Act passed the House by a 410-1 vote last year. But presidential candidate John Kerry (D-Mass.), a Vietnam veteran, put it on hold in the Senate. Other senators reintroduced the act last session and attached it as an amendment to a foreign-relations spending bill.

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January 2004, Vol. 48, No. 1