On 2 March, Vietnam’s National Assembly elected Vo Van Thuong as the country’s new president. He had been nominated by the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party the day before.
Thuong, a southerner, is at 52 the youngest member of the politburo, in which he had ranked fifth. He is close to the general-secretary of the party and most senior member of the politburo, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Thuong’s election had been preceded by two months of speculation—some of it finding its way into the foreign media—about turmoil in the leadership.
On 5 January, two of Vietnam’s four deputy prime ministers, Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam, resigned from the government and the central committee. The reason given was two scandals linked to management of the Covid-19 crisis.
Minh, who had oversight of foreign affairs, accepted blame for the corrupt actions of foreign ministry officials, including the ambassador to Japan, in taking bribes for places on repatriation flights to Vietnam. Dam, who had oversight of health matters, was held responsible for a scandal related to the sale and distribution of Covid test kits.
As all this was happening, scores of officials and business leaders were being questioned and detained on corruption allegations.