EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. • The Seventh Plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) was notable for the tensions between the Secretary-General and the Central Committee of the Party.

2. • The Central Committee gained more clout by securing more statutory power. The increase in its power and influence that began in 2001 seems to have reached a new peak in 2013.

3. • However the CPV as a whole has become weaker as the factions in the party become stronger and more disparate.

4. • There was a break up, albeit partially, in the practice of democratic centralism within the CPV which could be a healthy development.

5. • The Foreign Minister is still not a member of the Politburo even though the rules of the Communist Party of Vietnam dictate that he be so.

6. • The Politburo of the CPV is now seeking to rebuild internal unity, trust, and solidarity within the party, and to regain the trust of the Vietnamese people who have shown increasing dissatisfaction with growing corruption.

INTRODUCTION

The Seventh Plenum of the Eleventh Congress9 of the CPV held in early May 2013 was an incredibly important event for the CPV leadership in Hanoi. The Party had intended to use the Plenum to take the first steps in leadership planning towards the next Congress expected to be held in early 2016, and to try to make progress in the fight against corruption, ‘decadence of cadres’, and ‘social evils’. But the results of the votes for additional members to the Politburo and Secretariat took the Plenum onto an unexpected path.

The CPV's Central Committee of 175 members turned down proposals from the Secretary-General of the CPV, Nguyen Phu Trong, and declined to vote for admitting the Head of the Commission on Internal Affairs and Head of the Commission on Economic Affairs (both bodies were re-instated by him after being abolished in 2006) into the Politburo.10 It thus reduced the power of both the Politburo and Secretariat to fight corruption and supervise the government's economic policy — the two key areas that will determine the legitimacy, and perhaps the very survival, of the CPV.