Thread by @linhpnguyen

After Vietnam’s recent plenum, most focused on ex-leader punishments (which I see differently than most). But few noticed To Lam’s 1st major speech as Party chief. It wasn’t flashy- but quietly signaled a sharp shift: away from ideology; toward control, legal reform, & results.🧵

1) The most important structural move: merging three key reports (political, economic-social, and Party-building) into one.
This isn’t just streamlining - it’s about consolidating who gets to define the national agenda. Only one narrative. One voice.

2) Personnel work = hard power.
TL emphasised strict standards, accountability for nominations, and “national interest above all.”
No more factional compromise. He’s building a pipeline of loyal, efficient operators - not internal negotiators.

3) Language shift:
No heavy Marxist jargon. Instead: “legal bottlenecks,” “digital transformation,” “governance capacity.”
This is a move toward technocratic modernisation - running the state like a high-efficiency system, not a revolutionary project.

4) But ideology isn’t gone.
TL still invokes “95 years of the Party” and the usual “socialist-oriented market economy.”
This is not post-communism (yet) - it’s post-rhetoric. The Party remains central, but legitimacy now depends on results, not slogans.

5) The emerging model:
- Party = strategic brain
- Government = executive engine
- Ideology = symbolic layer
It’s a Vietnam-specific version of the “Singapore model”: strong control, efficient administration (hopefully), and performance legitimacy.

6) Conclusion: TL is quietly reengineering the system - not by revolution but by centralising control.
This isn’t the start of a new era but a return to a familiar cycle in Vnese politics: post-consensus, post-performance, back to the NTD era of pragmatic power and Party-led.