Vietnam's To Lam during a welcome ceremony for Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi in 2024.
Photographer: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
Vietnam's Leader Mirrors Xi's Style in Seeking Tighter Grip on Power
To Lam is seeking a pair of roles going into a crucial Communist Party Congress in order to consolidate power, as his reforms draw praise from business but meet resistance within party ranks.
The most powerful man in Vietnam regularly visits a village in the northern province of Hung Yen to pray at the graves of his forebears. Seeking to burnish his Communist credentials ahead of a crucial twice-a-decade party congress, To Lam is also racing to complete a new, much grander ancestral shrine nearby.
The nod to his lineage — a long line of patriots — is deliberate for a leader seeking to tighten his grip on power after a period where he’s also embarked on some of the most radical changes Vietnam has seen in 40 years, such as slashing the bureaucracy and elevating the private sector.
Those reforms have met resistance within Communist Party ranks, including the military faction, according to people familiar with the matter, who point to the ideological shift they represent and the opportunity it has given for Lam to promote his allies. Lam, 68, has also rattled long-established power structures as the spearhead of a sprawling anti-corruption campaign that has netted everyone from presidents to deputy prime ministers and tycoons.