Introduction

The year 2013 marked the mid-way point in the tenure of the Vietnam Communist Party (VCP) Central Committee elected at the eleventh national party congress in 2011. During the year the Central Committee began to assert its prerogative as the party's executive authority between national party congresses. The Central Committee's new political assertiveness has been at the expense of party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong and his supporters in the Politburo. The Central Committee's assertiveness also strengthened the power and influence of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Outside party circles, as events in 2013 illustrated, Prime Minister Dung was widely criticized for his handling of the economy. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet did poorly in the first vote of confidence conducted by the National Assembly.

During the year political activists, bloggers and journalists became more vocal in criticizing corruption and the party's efforts to entrench further its role as “the force leading state and society” in the state Constitution. The state responded to these challenges by stepping up repression against its critics.

In contrast, Vietnam's external relations went from strength to strength. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung played a high-profile role internationally delivering major addresses to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore and the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Senior Vietnamese leaders paid visits to all the major powers and Vietnam hosted official visits by government leaders from Japan, South Korea, China and Russia. Vietnam also forged strategic partnerships with five countries. Vietnam increased the number of strategic partnerships from eight to thirteen.

Domestic Politics

This sub-section reviews major domestic developments under six headings: anticorruption campaign, seventh Central Committee plenum, National Assembly vote of confidence, eighth Central Committee plenum, political repression, and constitutional amendments and leadership changes.

Anti-Corruption Campaign

In 2011, during his first term in office as prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung set up the Central Steering Committee for Anti-corruption and appointed himself as chair. The Steering Committee made little progress. Early in his second term, Prime Minister Dung was removed as chair and replaced by party Secretary General Trong. In January 2013, Trong appointed Nguyen Ba Thanh, secretary of the Da Nang municipal party committee, to head the Central Commission on Internal Affairs.