Ly Thai Hung was born in 1952 at Binh Dinh (central Vietnam). He studied abroad in Japan in 1971 and graduated with a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering from the Tokyo Metropolian University in 1978. He was a founding member of the Free Vietnamese Organization in Japan in 1975 and is a writer and a commentator for a number of newspapers and radio stations for current events in Vietnam and Indochina. He currently serves as the General Secretary of the Viet Tan Vietnamese Reform Party.