During the French protectorate, the French authority favored Christians and oppressed non-Christians in the country. This biased treatment by France united non-Christians, and created particular hostility between the Buddhists of Vietnam and the French colonial government and its Christian allies. The Việt Minh, who would eventually ally with Communist power, were hostile against those did not support independence of Vietnam. Many Vietnamese Christians possessed pro-French sentiment, which led to their persecution as a by-product of anti-colonial sentiment expressed by the Việt Minh, and was not necessarily religious persecution.