Archive · 23 Dec 2025
Vietnam's Communist Party Selects Leadership Candidates
Vietnam's top leaders from the Communist Party had a two-day meeting to choose who will lead the country for the next five years.
They are picking people for important jobs like the party chief, president, and prime minister.
The current party chief, To Lam, wants to keep his job and is asking everyone to make fair choices.
Lam has been making big changes in how the government and economy work, which some people like and others don't.
After this meeting, there will be a bigger gathering in January to officially announce the new leaders and decide important plans for the country.
The names of the people being considered haven't been shared yet, and it's not clear if the decisions made in this meeting will be made public.
Vietnam’s Communist Party began a two-day meeting to select candidates for leadership positions.
Party chief To Lam urged members to make objective and impartial selections and is seeking a second term.
The meeting precedes the five-yearly party congress scheduled for January 19-25.
Lam has implemented sweeping administrative and economic reforms, which have both admirers and critics.
Lam's leadership style has been described as ambitious and commanding, with a focus on centralizing power.
- Who
- Senior officials of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party
- What
- A two-day meeting to select candidates for leadership positions
- When
- Monday to Tuesday (December 22-23)
- Where
- Hanoi, Vietnam
- Why
- To finalize the selection of state and party leaders ahead of the five-yearly party congress
Supporters
Critics
Reforms
Supporters
Lam's reforms are ambitious and necessary for economic growth, likened to Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei's agenda.
Critics
The benefits of Lam's reforms are accruing to a narrow group of well-connected firms, not the broader public.
Leadership Style
Supporters
Lam's strong leadership style is necessary for pushing through significant changes and maintaining political stability.
Critics
Lam's centralization of power and expanded security apparatus raise concerns about authoritarian tendencies and lack of checks and balances.
- Meeting Duration
- Two days (Monday to Tuesday)
- Party Congress Date
- January 19-25
- Number of Party Members Attending
- Roughly 200
- Current Party Chief
- To Lam
- Party Chief's Tenure
- Seeking a second term
- Key Leadership Positions
- Party chief, president, prime minister, chairman of the parliament, standing member of the party’s secretariat
- Administrative Reforms
- Cut layers of local and central government, nearly 150,000 officials lost their jobs
- Economic Reforms
- Stressed the role of the private sector while retaining a leading role for the state