FILE - Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrives at the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, also known as APEC summit, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022, in Bangkok, Thailand. Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigned Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, the most senior member of the communist state’s government to be forced from his job after a series of high-profile corruption scandals for which he was held responsible. (Jack Taylor/Pool Photo via AP, File)
HANOI (Bloomberg): The race to fill one of Vietnam’s top four political positions has begun after Nguyen Xuan Phuc (pic) became the biggest name yet to fall in an anti-corruption campaign led by conservative ideologues in the Communist Party.
Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong is purging key officials - including some well known to foreign investors - as he touts the need to clean up the party’s image inside Vietnam.
Trong has served as the party’s general secretary since 2011, consolidating power along the way in a nation that had traditionally sought to balance various factions.
"This is the party core and the ministry of security taking back control of the party from those who think the government is better at running policy,” said Bill Hayton, an associate fellow in the Asia-Pacific program at Chatham House.
"The liberalisers, the competent government ministers, the stars if you like, are being pushed out.”
There’s no deadline to appoint a new president. The National Assembly could select a date to announce Phuc’s replacement or wait until the next legislative session starting from late May to vote in a candidate. Meanwhile, Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will become acting president in accordance to the constitution.
Here’s a look at the contenders for president in the one-party state:
Vo Thi Anh Xuan, 53
Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will serve as acting president until the National Assembly votes on a replacement. This will be the second time a woman has stepped into that role, with the first coming after then-president Tran Dai Quang died in office in 2018 following a serious illness.
Unlike the other candidates, Xuan is not part of the 16-member Politburo and would need to be elected to the political body first if she ends up becoming the president. She is unlikely to take on the role although she might end up being a compromise candidate if various party factions cannot come to an agreement.
Xuan has risen through the party ranks since joining as a staffer in a provincial party committee in 1996. She became vice president in 2021 and surfaced in the international press during US Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Hanoi in August that year.
To Lam, 65
Public Security Minister To Lam made headlines in 2021 after TikTok footage emerged of Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, known as Salt Bae, presenting a gold-leaf encrusted steak to the official in his London restaurant. Lam was part of the Vietnamese entourage at the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow at the time.
The footage triggered an uproar on Vietnamese social media, with many questioning how a top official could be caught on film indulging in extravagant meals during an anti-corruption campaign at the height of the pandemic. Lam didn’t face a party backlash and instead has been directing Trong’s graft crackdown, signing off on the arrests of several high-ranking party members and government officials.
If Lam becomes president, two of the top four leaders running Vietnam would be from the security forces.
A two-time Politburo member, Lam rose through the ranks of the Public Security Ministry and started off a cadre in the political protection department. He was promoted to general in 2019 when Trong concurrently held the presidency in 2019, and is seen by analysts to be part of the conservative faction of the party.
Vo Van Thuong, 52
Vo Van Thuong has been a member of the Politburo for two terms, and is the youngest permanent member of the Central Committee’s Secretariat, the No. 5 position in the party’s hierarchy. Analysts have noted that Thuong is the highest-ranked member supported by Trong to potentially succeed him as head of the Communist Party.
A student of Leninist-Marxist philosophy and political theory, Thuong hails from the southern province of Vinh Long. In recent months he’s been increasingly featured in Vietnamese media and has gone on official trips to meet with leaders in Laos and South Korea. He was also part of Trong’s delegation when the party chief visited China in late October.
Thuong caused ripples in Vietnam in late December when he said there needed to be pressure within the Communist Party and Vietnamese society to force those guilty of corruption to resign. His comment was reported in state-run media a day before the two deputy prime ministers were ousted from the Central Committee, with no official reason given for their departures.
Nguyen Van Nen, 65
As the Communist Party chief of Ho Chi Minh City, Nen steered Vietnam’s commercial hub through the pandemic and imposed tough lockdowns while keeping some factories open and preventing the region from coming to a standstill.
Nen first made international news as chairman of the government administrative office in 2015 when he announced a change in pension payments that stopped a rare, week-long strike at a footwear factory outside Ho Chi Minh City.
Given his more engaging and affable style, Nen has considerable support from Central Committee members from the south. This faction will want to ensure representation at a national level, given the 2021 party elections saw Vietnam’s top four leaders come from the central and northern regions.
