Vietnam’s Strategic Approach to Data Regulation and Data Infrastructure = 베트남의 데이터 규제 및 데이터 인프라에 대한 전략적 접근

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This thesis examines Vietnam’s evolving model of digital sovereignty by analyzing how the state tightens information control while selectively opening its digital infrastructure, including the data center sector, to foreign investment. The research begins with a central puzzle on why a regime known for surveillance and censorship would allow full foreign ownership in a strategic domain. Using qualitative analysis of laws, decrees, national strategies, and industry reports from 2008 to 2025, the thesis argues that recent infrastructural openness represents a strategic recalibration of control rather than liberalization.
The findings show that information control has shifted from reactive repression in the late 2000s to a more organized system of legal and bureaucratic governance. Instruments such as Decree 72 of 2013, Decree 174 of 2014, the Cybersecurity Law of 2018, and Decree 15 of 2020 institutionalized surveillance, data localization, and platform cooperation. This foundation later enabled broader forms of infrastructural control. Control across the ICT infrastructure through chokepoints via the Internet Service Provider (ISP), Internet Exchange Point (IXP), submarine cables, and recent new data infrastructure such as data centers operates in mechanism where ownership, licensing, and compliance give the state the ability to supervise data flows. Structural pressures including reliance on foreign platforms and repeated failures of undersea cables strengthened the push for new leverage through data localization and the expansion of a domestically governed data industry.
The thesis contributes to the study of digital authoritarianism by showing that infrastructural openness can reinforce rather than weaken authoritarian resilience. Vietnam modernizes by embedding state authority within the legal, administrative, and material foundations of its digital ecosystem. These findings open opportunities for further research on how other semi authoritarian states in the Global South govern digital development through both informational and infrastructural power.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction 7
• 1.1 Study Background and Purpose 7
• 1.2 Study Method and Outline 13
• 2. Literature Review & Analytical Framework 15
• 2.1 Conceptualizing Digital Sovereignty 15
• 2.2 Digital Authoritarianism: The Evolution of the Concept and the Focus on Information 18
• 2.3 Comparative Models and Vietnam Approach 21
• 2.4 Analytical Framework: Information and Infrastructure Control 24
• 3. Research Design & Operationalization 28
• 3.1 Research Design and Methodology 28
• 3.2 Operationalization 30
• 4. Information Control 35
• 4.1 Information Control Trend (2008-2024) 35
• 4.2 Surveillance 38
• 4.3 Censorship 43
• 4.4 Reactive Instruments : Information Manipulation & Cyberattacks 50
• 4.4.1 Information Manipulation 51
• 4.4.2 Cyberattacks 56
• 4.5 Information Control Synthesize 61
• 5. Infrastructure Control 65
• 5.1 Centralized ISP and Backbone Ownership 70
• 5.2 IXP (VNIX) as Domestic Connection Intersection 78
• 5.3 International Gateway via Submarine Cables 79
• 5.4 Data Center and Data Localization 86
• 5.5 Synthesis: The Architecture of Infrastructural Control 96
• 6. Conclusion 99
• Bibliography 104