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SCMP Reporter

A tree in Hanoi has become a symbol of how Vietnam’s Gen Z views its country – but it is not the enviable growth story sold by the government.
Tree 55 on Nguyen Huy Tu Street – now dubbed the “Justice Tree” – was buried under bouquets earlier this month. It was an act of digital-age defiance over the death of a teenager in a road traffic accident in the area that went unpunished.
Response to the accident, which triggered a belated explanation from the state, reveals unease with a system many young Vietnamese no longer believe can deliver on its socialist promises, analysts say.
The Communist Party is seen to be cracking down on free expression since the rise of To Lam, a former police chief who is now both president and party general secretary – perhaps the most powerful Vietnamese leader in decades.
The national narrative is one of a Southeast Asian nation on the rise, with region-topping economic growth and an international profile to match. But there is also simmering discontent from its 100 million population – especially from youth, connected to parts of the internet even one of the world’s tightest surveillance regimes is slow to reach.

Tree No 55 is a case in point. Last May, 18-year-old Do Ngoc Phuong Thuy and her father were hit by a BMW that swerved into their lane. The seriously wounded teenager died 10 days before her high school graduation exam.
State-controlled media initially identified the driver as a 64-year-old man with the initials NSC. Rumours circulated that they stood for Nguyen Sy Cuong, a former Vietnam National Assembly deputy and husband of a high-ranking party official.
The case went quiet for a year – until social media users revived it with memes about impunity and injustice. Virtual rebellion turned into real-life tributes as masked citizens laid flowers by the tree at the accident spot.
Alarmed by the spontaneous public protest, Vietnamese authorities sent uniformed officers to cordon off the tree. Then, on August 17, they took the rare step of confirming the driver was Cuong – adding that his contrition was enough to avoid punishment.
For many young Vietnamese the admission fell well short of accountability.
“Justice is nonexistent. The rich and powerful can seal themselves off from the consequences of their actions,” claimed Nam*, 27, a Canada-based activist who uses Threads to organise political events.


Social media – particularly Meta Platforms’ Threads – has helped the younger generation express their discontent.
Threads “allows the youth to come together and occupy it easily, creating a culture sphere of their own”, said Susann Pham, a German-based researcher on Vietnam’s social movements, civil society and politics.
“Threads also gives them some sort of anonymous identity compared to Facebook, where your network, your face, your family members might be easily seen.”
The teenager’s death provided “an emotional identity – a hook – that the younger generation can jump on”, she added. “They can easily identify with the victim.”
Gen Z rise
From India’s ‘’cockroach’’ movement to revolutions in Nepal and Bangladesh, angry Gen Z protesters have proved to be powerful challengers to governments that had seemed firmly entrenched.
While experts say opposition in Vietnam is a long way from turning into a similar threat – and a critical culture may stay in the digital world – the gripes of its youth are building.
“Vietnam is also at an inflection point right now,” said Phil Robertson, the director of Asian Human Rights and Labour Advocates. “The economy is growing rapidly, but there is a widening gap between the rich and the poor, the connected and the disconnected, between party members and the ordinary people.”

Even as the government aims for 10 per cent annual growth over coming years, anger is stirring in Gen Z over stagnant wages, rising property prices, pollution, corruption and environmental destruction.
Gia*, a 26-year-old university graduate, earns 10 million dong (US$400) a month teaching English in a northern province. Even double that in Hanoi would not be enough to cover her cost of living, she said, locking her out from home ownership, a key metric of a middle class that is supposed to be surfing the country’s wave of growth.
“There should be a range of affordable choices for people who want to settle,” she said.
In Vietnam, average monthly wages are around 9 million dong. Yet Hanoi homes cost around 123 million dong per square metre – meaning that people, even university graduates, would have to work their whole life to afford a small flat.
“One of the biggest issues facing us right now is the wages of everyday people. They are very low and creating a lot of pressure on the population,’’ said Nam, who is studying business in Canada.
That struggle, juxtaposed against Vietnam’s surging economy, with its luxury malls and supercars, has raised awkward questions of the government’s core narrative.
“I always thought we were living in a communist country, but now I see that it operates pretty much like a capitalist one, and a very ruthless one at that,’’ said Linh*, a 24-year-old now based in the UK.

Vietnam in the past decade has deployed 10,000-strong military cyber-troops, known as Force 47, to fight off “wrongful information and anti-state propaganda”.
Since To Lam became president in April, his government has stepped up its censorship and crackdown on dissent. Vietnamese journalist Le Anh Hung was arrested in March for “propagandising against the state”, while rapper MCK had to pull out over half the tracks on a new album after being approached by authorities “over sensitive content” and vulgar language.
“Gen Z is critical of elites and children of elites … and in the short term: the censoring of the rapper – or the censoring of Gen Z culture – is felt like a personal insult to their identity,” Pham added.
Mounting state repression is butting up against the aspirations of Vietnam’s politically aware youth, according to Robertson.
“Authorities can repress it this time but it is going to keep coming up. You can’t have elite systems that operate in the dark with impunity,” he said.
*Nicknames have been changed to protect identities


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How a tree in Hanoi points to flowering of dissent among Vietnam’s Gen Z

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To the outside world, Vietnam is a success story but the country’s youth believe that is not their reality


To the outside world, Vietnam is a success story but the country’s youth believe that is not their reality.


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Gen Z

To Lam

How a tree in Hanoi points to flowering of dissent among Vietnam’s Gen Z

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}To the outside world, Vietnam is a success story but the country’s youth believe that is not their reality

To the outside world, Vietnam is a success story but the country’s youth believe that is not their reality