Vietnam’s Prime Minister, Phan Van Khai, is to meet the Shrub today in Washington. On the Bush agenda are calls for an improvement in Vietnam’s human rights and religious freedom.

There are estimated to be around 100 religious prisoners in Vietnam jails. New Jersey Republican Christopher Smith said:

There is an incongruity between the “ever-closer” US-Vietnamese relations, and Vietnam’s appalling lack of respect for the basic human rights of its citizens.

Hang on a moment. ‘Lack of respect for the basic human rights of it’s citizens’? ‘100 religious prisoners in jails’. Sounds like Mr. Phan Van Khai should be raising the same issues with the Bush administration’s record.