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Nguyen Phu Trong admits he is ‘not in good health’ after winning Vietnam’s party chief election
Vietnam’s Congress ends with focus on growth, graft fight and managing US-China ties
- With his ‘unprecedented’ third term in office, analysts say Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has effectively neutered his political opponents
- But a question mark hangs over the 76-year-old’s health, as Vietnam faces an uncertain future amid regional rivalries and a fresh Covid-19 outbreak
Among other things, delegates at the party Congress also approved a five-year economic blueprint that calls for private companies to account for more than half of the economy by 2025, from 42 per cent now, and to almost double per-capita gross domestic product to between US$4,700 and US$5,000 by 2025, from US$2,750 at the end of 2020 and US$1,331 in 2010.
“We have taken back millions of US dollars,” Trong told reporters at a press conference following the event. “We will persevere with the fight against corruption.”
During his second term in office, Trong presided over a crackdown known as the “blazing furnace” campaign that saw multiple high-ranking officials handed lengthy jail terms, and two members of the Politburo expelled from the party for corruption. One is now in prison.
Critics, however, have labelled the campaign as little more than a politically motivated attack on his adversaries.
Carl Thayer, professor emeritus of politics at the University of New South Wales and a Southeast Asia expert, described Trong’s re-election for a third term as “unprecedented” in the modern era, adding that he had effectively neutered his political rivals.
Thayer noted that Trong had to be “given an exemption from the mandatory retirement age of 65 in 2016 at the 12th national party Congress” – with a new resolution also being adopted this year to allow someone of his age to remain in power.
Soon after the Congress ended, China’s President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Trong – published in both Vietnamese state media and the China Daily – in which he praised Vietnam’s commitment to socialist construction and reform, and stressed the need for stronger bilateral relations between the two communist nations.
Vietnam will welcome countries outside the region … to send warships to the South China Sea to enforce freedom of navigation
Economist Le Dang Doanh, an ex-adviser to multiple former Vietnamese prime ministers, told This Week In Asia that Vietnam would seek to “keep its trade with China” while also protecting “its own interests” over the next five years.
“So Vietnam will welcome countries outside the region such as France, the UK, Australia and Japan to send warships to the South China Sea to enforce freedom of navigation,” he said, adding that the country would “also make efforts to protect its sovereignty”.
Hoang Binh Quan, a member of Vietnam’s Communist Party Central Committee and head of the party’s external relations, said amid a break in the Congress that the country will “always want to receive the support of the international community to solve [the South China Sea issue] together.”
Vietnam beat coronavirus. With its economy booming, can it face up to China?
“This is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge for Vietnam due to the intensifying strategic competition between the US and China,” Hiep told This Week in Asia. “Perhaps Vietnam will try to maintain a stable relationship with China, and at the same time strengthen strategic ties with America, especially if China continues to act aggressively in the South China Sea.”
Schools, karaoke parlours and bars have all been closed in Hanoi as of Monday following the re-emergence of the virus in the Vietnamese capital for the first time in six months.
US-Vietnam defence ties expected to strengthen under new governments
In his press conference, Trong said the government was concerned about the outbreak, but his focus remained fixed on the economy.
We must “stay humble”, he said towards the end of his closing ceremony speech, before adding: “Our country will continue to prosper with glorious successes.”
Additional reporting by DPA, Bloomberg
