Religious freedom conditions remain very poor despite some positive changes over the past
decade in response to international attention. The Vietnamese government continues to imprison individuals
for religious activity or religious freedom advocacy. It uses a specialized religious police force (công an tôn
giáo) and vague national security laws to suppress independent Buddhist, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai
activities, and seeks to stop the growth of ethnic minority Protestantism and Catholicism via discrimination,
violence and forced renunciations of their faith.