What's next as the dust settles after Vietnam's leadership turmoil?
Vo Van Thuong's career has been within the Communist Party of Vietnam's inner echelons, as a top ideologue.
The dust seems to have settled on the unprecedented tumult in Vietnam’s leadership with the election of Vo Van Thuong as President.
In late December 2022, two deputy prime ministers, Vu Duc Dam and Pham Binh Minh, were forced to resign, the latter also forced off of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s elite politburo. Days before Tet, President and former Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned from the presidency and politburo.
For a regime that likes to present itself as being less authoritarian but as politically stable as China, it’s been a tumultuous few months.
All three were caught up in General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s “Blazing Furnace” anti-corruption campaign. Dam and Minh were blamed for pandemic-related scandals in ministries under their watch; though neither was directly implicated. That is arguably less the case with Phuc, who denied any involvement on the part of himself or his family with the Viet A scandal, or other business dealings.
It’s worth asking three questions: First, who is the new president and does his appointment matter? Second, are more heads likely to roll? Third, what does this portend in the run up to the 14th Party Congress slated for January 2026?
Who is Vo Van Thuong?
Vo Van Thuong is the youngest member of the politburo, now in his second term. He’s believed to be a loyalist of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Since 2016, Thuong's career has been within the Communist Party of Vietnam's inner echelons, as a top ideologue. He was the head of the central committee's propaganda and education commission and chairman of the Central Council on Political Thought, a top advisory body to ensure government policies are consistent with ideology. He also served on the party secretariat, which is in charge of the party’s day-to-day affairs.
This is why many label him an “apparatchik”. But prior to 2016, his record is far less doctrinaire, when he was a senior official in the party committee of the free-wheeling Ho Chi Minh City. Read More…
