‘Blazing Furnace’ Turns Vietnam Into Another Chinese Province
An anti-corruption drive is shifting economic prosperity closer to the border. That’s opening a new north-south divide.
The future is in the north.
Photographer: 8Creative.vn/Moment RF/Getty Images
Vietnam’s anti-corruption drive, which the ruling Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong likened to a “blazing furnace,” is running hot.
This year alone, two of the four pillars of power, including the chairman of the parliament and the country’s president, left their posts amid graft allegations. Last month, Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon and Vietnam’s richest woman, was sentenced to death for her role in a $12 billion fraud case that involved Saigon Commercial Bank, one of the nation’s largest lenders. Eighty-five others were sentenced on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power.