Southeast Asia analyst. Former FT and Reuters hack via Hanoi and London. AI calls me “linguine”. Views are my mums’.
Jul 22, 2025 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
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.
May 14, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🧵1/This “diplomacy scandal” happened on May 13 during the Vietnamese PM’s WhiteHouse visit as part of the US-ASEAN summit.
This, together w To Lam’s beef scandal and MOFA’s rescue flight corruption, might indicate a more serious issue of how dysfunctional 2/ the incumbent cabinet in Vn is in general, and how incompetent the Vnese leaders are in terms of comms, foreign affairs and security.
In the video (from 16:50), the PM had a sideline chat w his cabinet pre meeting w Blinken. They laughed when recalling Biden told Chinh that
