What’s Behind Vietnam’s Expanding Anti-Corruption Fight

Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that’s caught hundreds of government officials and business executives in its blast since 2021. The crackdown has been widely portrayed as part of Vietnam’s attempt to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of the US-China trade war and ensure the party’s legitimacy in the face of wide-ranging scandals. Increasingly, it looks like a way for Trong to strengthen his hand in selecting future leaders and ensuring more ideological purity in the one-party state.

The net was initially cast wide, with criminal investigations initiated against thousands of people. This year, the ripples reached the top: President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a former prime minister credited with the country’s relatively effective Covid-19 response and a regular guest speaker at the World Economic Forum, stepped down to assume ultimate “political responsibility” for “violations and shortcomings” under his watch. His removal came shortly after two deputy prime ministers — Vu Duc Dam and Pham Binh Minh — were dismissed by a special session of parliament after their assistants were detained by the Ministry of Public Security. One allegedly colluded with a manufacturer of Covid-19 test kits, causing “very serious” losses for the state, the other probe involved alleged bribery linked to repatriation flights for Vietnamese during the Covid-19 pandemic.