Vietnamese anti-corruption drive that claimed president’s scalp prompted by similar concerns as China’s, observers say

Name: Vietnamese president Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigns amid major anti-corruption purge
Uploaded: 2023-01-21T04:00:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 47 s
Description: Vietnamese president Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigns amid major anti-corruption purge

Communist Party of Vietnam chief Nguyen Phu Trong said to be focused on securing ruling party’s legitimacy

Promoting a healthy environment for businesses also key, with economy growing at fastest pace in 25 years

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Communist Party of Vietnam general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the party’s national congress in Hanoi in January 2021. Photo: VNA via Xinhua

Cyril Ip

Published: 12:00pm, 21 Jan 2023Updated: 5:41pm, 21 Jan 2023

Less than a week after the impending publication of a book by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong on the country’s anti-corruption campaign was announced, the country’s president, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, resigned on Tuesday over the “violations and shortcomings” of senior ministers.

Dozens of officials, including two deputy prime ministers, were earlier removed from their positions for being involved in major scandals involving price fixing and kickbacks for Covid-19 test kits, as well as bribes for seats on charter flights returning Vietnamese citizens to the country during the pandemic.

Trong’s anti-corruption campaign, which he has likened to a blazing furnace, was launched during his first term as the ruling party’s general secretary, which began in 2011, and gained momentum early in his second five-year term when he emerged victorious in a power struggle with then prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung. Academic observers say it was motivated by concerns similar to those cited by Chinese President Xi Jinping in launching his anti-corruption drive.

Zhao Weihua, director of Fudan University’s Centre for China’s Relations with Neighbouring Countries, said the impetus behind Vietnam’s anti-corruption drive was to secure the ruling party’s legitimacy, which largely depended on social stability.

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Vietnamese president Nguyen Xuan Phuc resigns amid major anti-corruption purge

The party’s priorities had shifted, he said. After the Vietnam war ended in 1975, it had focused on protecting the country’s freedom and independence from foreign interference. But after decades of progress, it now wanted to embody a modern and developed socialist power – a goal made clear at the most recent party congress in 2021.

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