Westminster adopted a resolution last week opposing what Councilmember Amy Phan West called “VietRISE’s promotion of communist propaganda.” The move by the City Council has sparked a back-and-forth between the city’s Vietnamese community on free speech and how local governments voice their dissent.
VietRISE is a social justice group based in Orange County that supports the Vietnamese and immigrant communities. The area also is home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam.
“The seminar promoted a distorted historical narrative that glorified Hồ Chí Minh and the Communist Party, whitewashing decades of dictatorship, political oppression and human rights abuses,” West stated in the Sept. 3 staff report…