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The Central Party Committee convened an extraordinary session on Aug. 3, during which it elected President To Lam as the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party. The decision came after previous party chief Nguyen Phu Trong died on July 19, leaving a power vacuum for the party’s top job.
To Lam, a police general who oversaw the sweeping anti-graft drive and was exposed eating a gold-encrusted steak at an upscale London restaurant in 2021 that prompted public outrage, received unanimous approval from the Central Committee in a vote on that same day. The career police officer spent over five decades ascending through the Ministry of Public Security ranks until he was named president last May after his predecessor resigned due to an alleged corruption scandal. Lam continues to retain his presidential position.
The rise of To Lam to the highest echelon of Vietnam’s one-party political system has reportedly helped stabilize the government. However, To Lam also sent a chill down the spines of many human rights defenders, who fear heavier repression as To Lam could deem regime security a priority in his policy-making agenda. In his acceptance speech, the new party chief said he would inherit Nguyen Phu Trong’s important theoretical achievements to continue paving the path to socialism while vowing to accelerate the party-building process and push forward the anti-corruption campaign.
Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnam expert at the Singapore-based ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, told AP News that “a new era has come” with the election of To Lam, who he said will be “the new unchallenged power who will dominate Vietnamese politics in the years, if not a decade, ahead.” The Politburo will select a new secretary in the next party congress in 2026, and To Lam’s performance will decide whether or not he can continue to hold the top job, Giang added.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, in an announcement on Aug. 2, refused to grant Vietnam “market economy” status and said it would continue to classify the Communist country as a “non-market” entity, keeping in place anti-dumping duties levied on Vietnamese exports. The Commerce Department said the ruling resulted from “extensive government involvement in Vietnam’s economy distorts Vietnamese prices and costs and ultimately renders them unusable to calculate U.S. antidumping duties.”
Hanoi has extensively lobbied Washington to acknowledge its economy as market-oriented since this would relieve the country’s commodities from anti-dumping taxes and tariffs required under U.S. law. The Vietnamese economy heavily depends on trade, while shipments to the U.S. account for most of its annual exports.
The refusal to elevate Vietnam to a “market economy” occurred despite recent efforts from Washington to consolidate its diplomatic relationship with Hanoi. Still, the U.S. Commerce said the result was objective and “based on a thorough evaluation of all the comments submitted.”
Following the rejection, Vietnam’s Ministry of Commerce and Trade said it would “continue to study and analyze the arguments” in the U.S. Commerce report and submit another request to review its market economy status. The ministry also indicated that the report lacked objectivity and fairness and claimed “Vietnam is already a market economy” similar to other market-oriented economies recognized by the U.S., including the U.K., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Japan, India, South Korea, and New Zealand.
The Cybersecurity Police Department of Bac Ninh Provincial Police on July 31 imposed a fine of 7.5 million dong ($297) on an internet user, whose name was written in initials as P.T.L., due to her alleged publication of “false and distorted” information concerning late Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on social media. The Bac Ninh internet user was fined under a cybersecurity decree that forbids “providing and sharing fake and false information, distorting the truth, and insulting the reputation of agencies, organizations, and the honor and dignity of individuals.”
On Aug. 1, another social media user in Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province, received a similar fine of 7.5 million dong for violating the exact cybersecurity decree that criminalizes sharing information on social media to defame the reputation of local authorities. N.V.T., the accused man, had reportedly used his Facebook account to post and share his dissatisfaction with local authorities’ measurement and dissection of agricultural lands for local farmers like him, a process that began in 2003. The Hai Duong resident said he had submitted many petitions to the authorities regarding this issue but received no response.
Another case of criminalization of online speech occurred in Khanh Hoa Province on Aug. 1, where the provincial Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Bureau issued a fine of five million dong for H.X.T., a YouTube user who recorded and uploaded several videos of ascetic monk Thich Minh Tue when he arrived in the city of Nha Trang. The cybersecurity police declared that his videos contained “false information” intending to “attract views from the public.” However, the police did not specify which part of the videos published contained fabricated information.
Montagnard activist Y Quynh Bdap, 32, who was accused of “terrorism” by a Vietnamese court earlier this year due to his alleged participation in a deadly attack in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak in June 2023, had his first teleconference hearing on Aug. 1 at the Criminal Court in Bangkok.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has recognized Y Quynh as a refugee, and he is awaiting resettlement in a third country before the Thai police arrested him on June 11, 2024, for allegedly overstaying his visa following Vietnam's extradition request. The activist had to attend this Aug. 1 hearing via teleconference after the Vietnamese officials cited “security concerns.”
Before the trial of Bdap, four U.S. lawmakers expressed concern about his safety if he was to be sent back to Vietnam, and they called for his immediate release. Meanwhile, human rights groups and experts have called on Thailand to uphold its non-refoulement obligations by not returning foreign dissidents to places where they could be at risk of persecution or torture. They also condemned the Thai government of being a “swap mart,” where they exchange dissidents with other authoritarian governments, such as Vietnam, regularly.
According to Nadthasiri Bergman, Bdap’s defense lawyer, her client will face another trial regarding immigration charges on Aug. 5 in addition to the extradition hearing. Bergman also stated the technical disadvantages of the teleconference trial, where they had difficulty inquiring and translating the defendant’s responses. Although the defense lawyer was unclear when the court announced its ruling, she hoped Thailand would consider the recently enacted law on forced disappearances, ensuring her client would not be sent back to his home country where he could be harmed.
According to the Bangkok Post, a Thai government spokesperson assured the public that the government would not interfere in Y Quynh Bdap's legal proceedings and that this issue “will be settled in court.” Chai Wacharonke, the spokesperson, said that the court has the ultimate decision on Bdap's release or extradition. Diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, representatives of different human rights organizations, and Vietnamese security officials were present at the Aug. 1 hearing.
The Security Investigation Bureau of Long An Provincial Police issued an order to arrest and prosecute Nguyen Van Trung, 49, a resident of Can Duoc District, due to his alleged membership in the Provisional National Government of Vietnam, a U.S.-based dissident organization classified as a “terrorist group” by the Ministry of Public Security. Trung was charged with “conducting activities aimed at overthrowing the people's administration,” violating Article 109 of the Penal Code.
The police declared that Trung had contacted organizers of the Provisional National Government of Vietnam via social media and registered to participate in a referendum hosted by the group to elect its leader, Dao Minh Quan, as the president of the Third Republic of Vietnam. The security investigation bureau also accused Trung of becoming a member of this group to receive some benefits so that he could help Dao Minh Quan in seeking to “overthrow the Communist regime in Vietnam and establish a new government.”
According to state media reports, dozens of Vietnamese social media users who allegedly had links to or who were registered as members of this group have been arrested and sentenced to harsh prison terms. For example, Nguyen Thi Bach Hue, an internet user living in Long An Province, received a 12-year sentence on “subversion” charges last April due to her alleged involvement in this group. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Tien, another alleged Provisional National Government of Vietnam member, received a similar sentence in September 2022.
The Police Investigation Bureau of Da Nang Police Department on Aug. 2 arrested and charged Nguyen Dinh Trung, 66, a city resident, on allegations of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331. The investigation bureau accused Trung of drafting numerous petitions containing “false and fabricated information” and sending them to local and central authorities. The authorities did not publicize the content of Trung’s petitions or explain why they violated Article 331.
Fulcrum/ Nguyen Thanh Giang and Nguyen Khac Giang/ Aug. 1
“[Nguyen Phu Trong’s] perception of corruption as the biggest threat to the survival of the party stemmed from his research into the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This led to his determination to cleanse Vietnam of corrupt elements. Based on this concept, he sought to restore public trust in the CPV’s rule and maintain its political legitimacy. He issued strict conduct guidelines for party members. Again, parts of these guidelines come from his own reflections of the situation, including his 2005 collection, Party Building and Rectification – Some Theoretical and Practical Issues. Violators of these regulations were purged, resulting in hundreds of thousands of government officials being disciplined, demoted, or imprisoned during his decade-long anti-corruption campaign.
With his PhD in Leninism (he studied in Moscow in the 1980s), Trong creatively interpreted an ideology that otherwise would have been outdated for modern Vietnam. His selected works helped the party to navigate internal and external challenges. His successors will struggle to uphold that legacy and use it to hold the party together for three reasons.”
DW/ David Hutt/ July 31
“Even so, analysts told DW that To Lam lacks the foreign policy credentials of Trong. Much of the Communist Party's senior leadership, now in the hands of the military and police, are also somewhat lacking in this regard.
To Lam, the public security minister between 2016 and 2024, has made relatively few international visits, and the foreign ministry has been purged over the past year as part of a "blazing furnace" anti-corruption campaign that Trong launched in 2016 and To Lam oversaw.
To Lam does not "particularly care" about human rights, the environment or "any of the things that European politicians think are important," Bill Hayton, associate fellow at Chatham House's Asia-Pacific Programme, told DW.”
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It has become widely recognized that the Vietnamese government is steadily eroding the right to free speech and expression. This
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