Vietnam detains blogger for anti-state posts

Vietnamese police have detained a prominent blogger for
posting anti-state articles, the second such arrest this month
as, the country’s communist authorities keep up their long-
running crackdown on online dissent.Commentator Nguyen
Quang Lap was arrested at his house in Ho Chi Minh
City on Saturday afternoon, his wife told AFP news
agency.“More than a dozen security people searched our
residence for several hours and took him away,” Ho Thi
Hong said.“They said his blog ran articles against the
[communist] party’s policies and guidelines,” she added.Lap,
58, a member of the official Vietnam Writers’
Association, is a well known figure in the southeast Asian
nation. His blog has received millions of hits and his
Facebook account has nearly 15,000 followers.His website
hosted his own writing and pieces by others, some of which
often made critical points about social and political issues in
Vietnam. Many of the posts were strongly anti-China,
reflecting widespread animosity among many Vietnamese,
including intellectuals, for the country’s northern
neighbour.Hanoi and Beijing are currently locked in a
long-standing territorial dispute over fishing rights and
island chains in the South China Sea.