If you aren’t up to date on the saga of the Great Hanoi Tree Slaughter of 2015, the latest development (as of this writing) is that Nguyen The Thao, chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, has ordered suspensions for several officials involved in the suspended plan to replace thousands of mature trees as part of a VND60 billion (US$2.82 million) “beautification” plan.

This comes after the dismay of civic-minded business folks who say city officials unjustly blamed them for “pressuring” them to order the arborcide. “It seems we have turned from tree planters into illegal loggers,” huffed VPBank’s director of marketing and media relations after public outrage halted the plan.

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