Vietnam's recent political unrest intensified on Friday when the head of the National Assembly resigned, the latest high-level government departure amid a widening anti-corruption campaign that has raised questions. Ask about the country's stability.
Vuong Dinh Hue, Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly, submitted his resignation on Friday after the Central Inspection Committee found him violating regulations on party membership management. It did not specify what these regulations were, but it came four days after his assistant was detained for abuse of power.
“Mr. Vuong Dinh Hue's mistakes and shortcomings, according to the Central Executive Committee, have caused bad public opinion, affecting the reputation of the Party, the state and him personally,” the Vietnamese Government wrote on Facebook. .
Mr. Hue is one of them “four pillars” of leadership in Vietnam – the others are the Communist Party leader, prime minister and president – which has made him a potential candidate for future party leadership. His resignation could increase anxiety among officials in Vietnam about an increasingly bitter power struggle ahead of the upcoming leadership transition in 2026, and scare off foreign investors. Foreigners flocked to Vietnam worriedly in recent years.
Mr. Hue is the fourth Politburo member to resign or be dismissed since 2021. Last month, President Vo Van Thuong, resignation after the Communist Party said he had violated Party regulations. He is the second president to resign in more than a year.
The question in Vietnam today is who will succeed Nguyen Phu Trong, leader of the Communist Party. Mr. Trong is a person reappointed the position of general secretary in his unprecedented third five-year term in 2021, he is 80 years old and said to be in poor health.
In 2016, Mr. Trong launched the “fire furnace” anti-corruption campaign, arguing that corruption could threaten the survival of the Communist Party. Thousands Party members at all levels of the government have been fired, expelled from the party or jailed, although many question whether some of these targets are political purges within a closed political system.
Mr. Hue seems to be admired by his peers. Last October, in a vote of confidence for 44 National Assembly deputies, he received 91% of the total votes, the highest rate in the group.
This month, Mr. Trong led a high-level Vietnamese delegation to China. He was last seen in public early Friday morning, when he visited the mausoleum of President Ho Chi Minh, former president and revolutionary hero, with the prime minister ahead of the 49th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Vietnam War and reunification of the two Koreas next week. South Vietnam was under communist rule.
