China’s Xi Jinping clearly dominates the CCP, having become a “paramount leader” and a “core leader.” But the CCP has a much longer history of putting power in the hands of one man than the VCP, which resists cults of personality. Trong is 74, and at the 2016 Party Congress had to have an exemption for him to continue as Party chief because he exceeded age restrictions. He is almost certain to resign as VCP chief in 2021. Xi, by comparison, is 65 years old and doesn’t show any signs of wanting to step down – nor is the CCP able to force him to step down. Trong, much like all other Vietnamese Party chiefs, hasn’t cultivated a cult of personality. Xi, by comparison, is front and center on a daily basis in Chinese newspapers.
Another difference is their ambitions. Xi Jinping wants to change China, while Nguyen Phu Trong still appears mostly committed to changing the Vietnamese Communist Party. In a sense, Trong is rather “monothematic.” His goals have been to clean up the Party through a monumental anti-corruption campaign; purify Party membership through a morality campaign; recentralize power from the provinces back to Hanoi; and ensure the Party maintains legitimacy among the public, through economic growth and by upholding a stable status quo. But Trong really doesn’t have any novel policy ideas outside of how the Party functions. Economic reform and privatization of state-owned enterprises has continued at the same pace as pre-2016; dissent is more strenuously curbed but this is nothing new in Vietnam.
