According to the plan, the 14th Party Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) will take place in early 2026. But as a result, the personnel work led by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the13th National Congress was clearly in crisis and seriously failed from the beginning.
The number of Central Committee members and provincial leaders, disciplined or imprisoned, is unprecedentedly large. That has made the quality of personnel selection for the Central Committee, led by Head of the Human Resources Subcommittee Nguyen Phu Trong, very problematic.
Thanh Nien newspaper on March 14 reported, “Prepare well the personnel of the 14th Party Central Committee.” The news said that on the morning of March 13, in Hanoi, the Personnel Subcommittee of the 14th Party National Congress held its first session, chaired by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. State President Vo Van Thuong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Chairman of the National Assembly Vuong Dinh Hue, Standing member of the Secretariat cum Head of the Central Organizing Commission Truong Thi Mai also attended.
In his opening speech at the conference, General Secretary Trong affirmed that the Central Personnel plan for the 14th term is an extremely important job, receiving the deep attention of the entire Party and the all people.
Assessing high-level personnel work for which the party chief is responsible, public opinion and observers are always skeptical.
At the same time, the question is why, General Secretary Trong once asserted “resolutely not to let into the Central Committee these individuals who do not have enough moral qualities, abilities, corrupt elements, and opportunists” but in the end, everything went back to bad, even more serious.
At the 8th Plenum of the 13th Central Committee (October 2023), when General Trong introduced the Politburo’s report “Personnel Planning for the 14th term,” it immediately encountered reactions from a large number of Central Committee members. Many opinions say that it is too early to discuss personnel work for the 14th National Congress.
However, Trong and the senior leadership still decided to establish 5 subcommittees for the 14th National Congress named: Documents Subcommittee; Socio-Economic Subcommittee; Human Resources Subcommittee; Party Charter Subcommittee; and the Subcommittee for Organization and Service of the Congress.
In particular, the Documents Subcommittee is also in charge of Trong. The Socio-Economic Subcommittee is headed by PM Chinh; and the Party Charter Subcommittee is responsible for the Standing Committee of the Secretariat Mai.
Also taking advantage of the 8th Plenum, in October 2023, it was unclear where the orders came from, the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) published an article titled: “Selecting officials with enough virtue and to be included in the new Central Committee.”
According to observers, this is an unprecedented phenomenon, the Voice of Vietnam did not avoid it, and directly attacked Trong.
This article quotes statements from senior officials, both current and retired, in the Central Theoretical Council, directly managed by Trong. This shows that ideologically senior leaders like Trong are no longer trusted.
That is why, the more anti-corruption work of General Secretary Trong, the more anti-corruption it increases. Prosecutions and arrests have not stopped, many senior officials have been arrested, but the comrades who have not been exposed are still not afraid, they continue to corrupt. Why did such a tragic situation occur – “cadre work” is certainly part of the answer.
Public opinion has long said that never before has the Communist Party of Vietnam and its government had the situation of cadres running for power, using material money to buy positions, be as serious as it is now, under Trong’s leadership.
General Secretary Trong, at the 8th Plenum, was assessed by the Central Committee as having many violations, when many people were admitted to the Central Committee who did not meet the prescribed standards.
Including the fact that Trong was accused of “giving the green light” creating conditions for his agents to manipulate to get money from officials in exchange for promotion.
Every step up the ladder of fame, if cadres want to have power, they must pay. If they have little capital, buy a low-ranking positions and go with modest benefits. Working as a low-ranking officials, they have to save up for a couple of years and then use to buy higher positions. Those who were lucky were “rotated” and then quickly jumped to the Central Committee, even entering the Politburo within a short time.
That is also the reason why, under General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s reign, and in the future, if the current mechanism for selecting high-level personnel is maintained, the Communist Party of Vietnam will still have internal problems. There is endless corruption, and constant fighting and power struggles./.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
