Book Review: Speaking Out in Vietnam. Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party-Ruled Nation

One morning in the spring of 2015, Hanoians woke up to the whine of chain saws on two of the capital's boulevards. Official sources said the trees that lined them were aging and diseased. Quite obviously, however, most were healthy.

Officials who have the power to do so will often misappropriate public goods, in this case mature tropical hardwoods, wheth…