Term Limits? Not for Vietnam’s Hard-Line Communist LeaderNguyen Phu Trong, 76, was named to a third term in office as party leaders were unable to reach consensus on a successor. The reappointment may have put off a transition to more pragmatic leadership.
By Richard C. Paddock
Feb. 1, 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/world/asia/vietnam-party-congress.htmlBANGKOK — Under the rules of Vietnam’s Communist Party, its chief is to step aside at age 65 or after two terms. The country’s dogmatic leader, Nguyen Phu Trong, would not qualify for reappointment on either count.
But that didn’t prevent the party from cementing his rule as it concluded its once-every-five-years congress on Monday, giving him a third term in an effort to project unity and hold off more pragmatic challengers.
Mr. Trong, 76, in frail health after 10 years at the party’s helm, was reappointed as general secretary in one of the world’s few remaining communist dictatorships. Known for his conservative ideological stance, Mr. Trong has made fighting high-level corruption a priority, and he has presided at a time of sustained economic growth and national success in containing the coronavirus.
Under his leadership, Vietnam is expected to maintain a foreign policy of balancing Chinese and American interests, while keeping the party’s grip at home by continuing to suppress dissent through the imposition of long prison sentences.
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Granting Mr. Trong a third five-year term to handle these issues as general secretary meant going against the party’s own rules limiting him to two terms in office and waiving the age limit for him for the third time.
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Mr. Trong represents a conservative Marxist-Leninist faction within the party, which has come under increasing pressure from more pragmatic Communist leaders of various factions.
He had chosen a favored subordinate as his designated successor, but the party rejected his nominee. Mr. Trong chose to stay on as general secretary rather than let the leader of a rival faction accede to the top post.
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