Vietnam president falls amid graft purge

Vietnam’s anti-graft broom has swept off President Vo Van Thuong as the country’s parliament approved Thursday his resignation.

The National Assembly — a rubber-stamp body — voted to dismiss Thuong in a closed session at an extraordinary meeting, the state-run Tuoi Tre news website reported.

Thuong resigned on Wednesday, barely a year after assuming the job, the latest high-profile leader to fall under the ruling Communist Party’s purge of corrupt politicians.

The 53-year-old ex-president admitted guilt on unspecified “violations and shortcomings.”

The wide-ranging crackdown on corruption, believed to be orchestrated by party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong — seen as the most powerful figure in the country — also saw Thuong’s predecessor, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, forced to resign suddenly last January.

The party’s politburo, its key decision-making body, has now lost four of its 18 members since 2021 — two presidents, a deputy prime minister and a former trade minister.

Before Phuc’s resignation last year, only one other Communist Party president had ever stepped down, and that was for health reasons.

Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan will serve as acting president, state media reported, until the National Assembly chooses a full-time replacement.

Meanwhile, a handful of the country’s top business leaders have been put on trial in huge fraud and corruption cases, with one facing a possible death sentence in a $12.5-billion bond scam case.

The turmoil comes as Vietnam seeks foreign investment, particularly from the United States, to develop its economy away from low-value manufacturing and towards high-tech products such as semiconductors.

Linh Nguyen, a Vietnam analyst at global risk consultancy Control Risks, said it appeared that factions within the Communist Party were already jockeying for position ahead of a crucial party congress in 2026.

“The politicized anti-corruption campaign is getting more intense towards the next party congress, leaving even more uncertainty about who’s next,” she told Agence France-Presse.

“Losing the youngest politburo member and youngest top leader also raises concerns over the aging leadership in Vietnam, as most of them will be overaged by the next party congress in 2026.”