Explainer | How Vietnam will pick new leaders amid rising China, US tensions

A secretive, twice-a-decade meeting to be held in Hanoi later this month will decide the communist country’s future leadership and economic direction

It comes amid a sharp global recession, trade disputes with Washington and fraught relations with Beijing over the South China Sea

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Former Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and other officials cast their their ballots at the country’s 12th National Party Congress in 2016. Photo: Xinhua/VNA

Published: 10:30am, 5 Jan 2021Updated: 10:30am, 5 Jan 2021

Vietnam, one of the world’s five remaining communist states, is about to get new leadership. The biggest moves will emerge from a secretive, twice-a-decade meeting – the National Party Congress – which gets under way in Hanoi in late January.

From general secretary on down, there will be a shake-up of the characters who will steer the Southeast Asian nation of 97.6 million people through a period of tense relations involving China and the United States.

While no major policy reset is anticipated, the Congress will approve a five-year blueprint for one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

How does the system work?

It is an opaque process. Vietnam has a collective “four pillar” leadership structure made up of the general secretary, prime minister, president and chair of the National Assembly, the nation’s parliament. It governs in consultation with a 17- to 19-member politburo.

Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam's president and general secretary of the country’s Communist Party, centre, pictured with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, right, in November. Photo: EPA

Nguyen Phu Trong, the current general secretary, also became president in 2018 following the death of President Tran Dai Quang, meaning the top leadership was down to three. Observers anticipate the government will revert to four pillars in 2021.