His family, including his mother and five siblings immigrated to Saigon after the Geneva Accords, fleeing communist rule in North Vietnam.
[6] He also became Amnesty International's first member in Vietnam[7] and began publishing two underground newspapers, "The Uprising" (Vung Day) for youth and "The People’s Uprising" (Toan Dan Vung Day) for the general public, to question the government's violations of basic human rights and to demand that the government reduce military spending and invest in the welfare of the people.
[1][5] In 1978, he was arrested for his continued critique of national health care policy,[8] along with 47 associates, and imprisoned without trial; many were tortured and five died in captivity.
When Quế demanded improvement in the treatment of political prisoners, he was incarcerated in a five-by-six foot cell without sanitary facilities for two months.
[6] Quế formed a new pro-democracy group following his arrest called the High Tide of Humanism Movement (Vietnamese: Cao Tran Nhan Ban).
[1][6] On 29 November 1991, after a half-hour sham trial[5] he was sentenced to twenty years of hard labor plus five years' house arrest for treason after sending documents to Amnesty International; according to the Vietnamese national press agency, "reactionary forces used them to denigrate Vietnam" and "attempting to overthrow the people's government".
[14] On 17 March 2003, Quế was arrested for again after he wrote a series of articles about Vietnamese media censorship, with the regime accusing him of "espionage".
[18] On 6 March 2012, former U.S. Representative Joseph Cao organized a Vietnamese-American lobbying effort for Quế, Nguyen Van Ly, Dieu Cay, and other Vietnamese political prisoners, calling on the administration of President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to take a stronger stand on their behalf.