Vietnam political star’s downfall shocks nation as graft purge widens: ‘who will be next president?’
- Vo Van Thuong quit over than a year into the presidency after seemingly falling to a sweeping ‘blazing furnace’ anti-corruption campaign
- The sudden resignation comes as Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing major economies, prepares to set its new leadership in 2026
On Thursday, the Vietnamese parliament formally accepted Thuong’s resignation, over a year into the largely-ceremonial job.
His departure leaves a potential gap in the candidate list for leadership roles as Vietnam’s most powerful politician, 79-year-old General-Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, prepares to hand over power in the coming years.
01:48
Vietnam’s president Vo Van Thuong quits after just one year
Vietnamese told This Week in Asia they were both intrigued and unnerved by the latest signs of trouble at the top as another senior figure seemingly falls to the sweeping “blazing furnace” anti-corruption campaign, which has ensnared top ranking politicians and super-rich tycoons since 2020.
“It is fast and furious,” said Minh, a Ho Chi Minh City resident requesting anonymity in a one-party state where dissent is routinely punished. “Who will be the next president? I don’t have any idea how this country will be governed.”
Thuong follows former president Nguyen Xuan Phuc of the powerful Politburo, as the purge scythes through senior Communist Party ranks.
Vietnam’s president quits after one year on the job
The sudden resignation comes as Vietnam, one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing major economies, prepares to set its new leadership in 2026, which will be responsible for steering an economy widely seen as the region’s next big bet by global corporations such as Intel, Apple and Microsoft, which are seeking to hedge risks by moving supply chains out of China.
Vietnam last year was the only country to welcome both US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a sign of its strategic importance to both superpowers.
Thuong’s resignation gives him the ignominy of becoming Vietnam’s shortest-serving president, and appears to put a pin in the political ambitions of the 53-year-old, who was the youngest member of the party’s Politburo, the country’s top decision-making body.
“His departure is a big shock to Vietnamese politics,” said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, adding the departure of two presidents in under two years was not a good sign for a country often praised for political stability.
Although the role is mostly ceremonial, the presidency is one of the top four most powerful offices in the communist country’s political system. Thuong was also seen to have close links to General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful politician and the primary architect of the party’s anti-corruption campaign.
Thuong was elected by the parliament in March 2023, around two months after his predecessor’s resignation for assuming responsibility in another anti-corruption case.
What’s behind Vietnam’s ‘blazing furnace’ corruption purge?
His fate appeared to have been sealed after police last month arrested the chairman of the Phuc Son Group, a private construction firm, for “violating accounting regulations causing serious consequences”, according to state media reports. The ensuing probe is alleged to have found links to contracts for infrastructure schemes, while Vo Van Thuong served as party chairman of central Quang Ngai province from 2011 to 2013.
His downfall also poses a bureaucratic quandary to the Party, which will hold its next congress in 2026 and is likely to elect a replacement for the ageing General Secretary Trong.
“There are only three members of the current Politburo who now qualify for selection to the four pillars of leadership – party secretary, prime minister, state president and chairman of the National Assembly,” said Carlyle Thayer, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the UNSW’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“Thuong would have been the youngest of four if he had not resigned. Any other incumbent member of the Politburo would have to be given a special exemption from the mandatory retirement age of 65 to serve in one of the top four posts.”
Thuong’s departure will not disrupt the country’s business environment in the short term, experts say, but may negatively affect investor confidence.
“The political uncertainty might force investors to adopt a wait-and-see approach to make a decision,” Giang said.
Investors have raised concerns about the “blazing furnaces” anti-corruption campaign, as it has slowed routine transactions and bureaucratic processes as public officials become afraid of being implicated in a potential scandal.
In a National Assembly meeting in May 2023, lawmakers said officials were terrified of making mistakes because of an opaque legal system, without precise frameworks to protect officials and civil servants who wished to innovate, according to a state media report.
“Blazing furnaces” was in early 2020 claiming high-profile scalps and prosecutions, now including four Politburo members, two ministers, a deputy prime minister, and more than a dozen provincial and city leaders.
The campaign has also ensnared some of Vietnam’s tycoons, once seen as beyond the law.
Prosecutors seek death sentence for leader of Vietnam’s largest financial scam
Prosecutors on Tuesday proposed the death sentence for Lan.
Also on Tuesday, the chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh – Do Anh Dung, and his son, Do Hoang Viet – stood trial for illegal bond issues to obtain more than US$349 million, a case which has triggered public outrage for heaping debt on to thousands of people, according to state media.
