Journalists watch a TV showing general secretary To Lam at the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in Hanoi. The truncated timetable suggests that there is little opposition to re-electing the country’s current leader To Lam as general secretary. What remains uncertain is whether Lam will also assume the post of president in a consolidation of state and party power under a single leader similar to China’s Xi Jinping. A former head of state security, Lam led an anti-corruption drive that purged numerous party officials in an exercise reminiscent of Xi’s. Vietnam has a collective leadership structure with five pillars: party general secretary, state president, prime minister, national assembly chair and the standing member of the party secretariat.

Source: The Irish Times January 22, 2026 09:57 UTC