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Vietnam
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Will Vietnam’s anti-corruption drive usher in pro-China hardliners and impact US ties?

  • The conservatives among Vietnam’s future leaders could seek closer ties with China to ensure the regime’s survival, analysts say
  • Vietnam has steadfastly maintained its ‘bamboo diplomacy’ by not aligning with any of the major powers in foreign policy

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Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong is leading the country’s “Blazing Furnace” anti-corruption campaign. Photo: AP
SCMP Reporter
The anti-corruption purge ripping through the top ranks of the Communist Party of Vietnam is driven by factional infighting that is likely to see the emergence of hardliners whose instincts may be to edge closer to China, according to analysts.

The party has shattered its reputation as a stable and secretive steward of Southeast Asia’s second-fastest growing economy with an unprecedented campaign to root out corrupt officials conducted in front of a stunned public.

So far, the drive has forced the exits of two presidents; the powerful chair of the National Assembly, two deputy prime ministers and dozens of Central Committee members.

In its latest move, Hanoi said on Thursday that it removed Thuong Thi Mai, who ranked fifth among Vietnam’s leaders and was the only woman in the Politburo, for “violations and shortcomings,” without elaborating, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the headline-grabbing US$27 billion fraud inside Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank (SCB), one of the country’s largest banks, has left foreign investors questioning the fundamentals of the institutions they need to do business with to enter Vietnam’s roaring market.

While the crackdown has slowed routine transactions and snarled up bureaucratic processes, it may create a positive impact in terms of improving business transparency.

“The impact of the anti-corruption campaign manifests in reducing bribery cost, enhancing firm performance in the private sector, and significantly improving investment efficiency in the public sector,” said Khanh Hoang, a senior lecturer at Lincoln University.

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