Vietnam President Resigns After Being Blamed by Ruling Party for ‘Violations’

Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrives to attend APEC Leader's Dialogue with APEC Business Advisory Council during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, Thailand, on Nov. 18, 2022. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/Pool via Reuters)

The president of Vietnam has resigned due to “violations and wrongdoings,” the Communist Party of Vietnam announced on Tuesday.

Nguyen Xuan Phuc, 68, was blamed for violations that were made by officials under his supervision when he was prime minister.

Phuc’s resignation is the first time a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s top leadership has resigned early in the absence of an illness. He is the most senior official targeted by the Vietnamese regime’s clampdown campaign.

“Fully being aware of his responsibilities before the party and people, he submitted an application to resign from his assigned positions, quit his job and retire,” the Vietnamese regime said in statement about Phuc, per state Vietnamese News Agency.

According to VNA, Phuc had resigned at a session of the Vietnamese Communist Party’s Central Committee that was held “to consider and give opinions on Comrade Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s wish to stop holding positions, quit work and retire.” The language of the announcement strongly suggested that he was forced to step down.

His resignation requires approval from the country’s National Assembly to become effective. A rare extraordinary meeting of the assembly will be held this week.

Phuc was prime minister from 2016 to 2021 and it was widely believed that he would succeed the general secretary.

As prime minister, Phuc oversaw trade deals with the European Union and Pacific powers, including Japan and Australia.

The position of president is mostly ceremonial in Vietnam, which does not have any paramount ruler. Instead, it has four leading positions, or “pillars”: the Communist Party’s general secretary, the president, the prime minister, and the chair of the legislature.

The most powerful position, Communist Party general secretary, is currently held by Nguyen Phu Trong, who in 2021 won a rare third five-year term in office. His hallmark has been a long-running clampdown campaign, which in his second term targeted two former Cabinet ministers and Hanoi’s former mayor.

Clampdown Campaign

The Communist Party of Vietnam is engaged in the clampdown campaign led by Trong. The so-called anti-corruption campaign seems to have intensified after a plethora of investigations and dismissals.

In 2022 alone, 539 party members were prosecuted or “disciplined” for corruption and “deliberate wrongdoings,” including ministers, top officials, and diplomats, according to the ruling party, while police investigated 453 corruption cases, up 50 percent from 2021.

Rumors about an impending resignation by Phuc was widespread after the dismissal of two deputy prime ministers who had served under him.

An official statement published in state media praised Phuc for his efforts as prime minister in battling the COVID-19 pandemic. But it said that Phuc is responsible as the country’s top executive for serious scandals involving those under him—including two deputy prime ministers and three other ministers.

The statement noted that the two deputy prime ministers had resigned from their positions and criminal proceedings had been launched against two other ministers and many other officials. Several of the scandals involved corruption related to COVID-19 pandemic control measures.

Two scandals that disrupted the handling of the pandemic—notably a bribery scandal linked to flying home Vietnamese citizens who were stranded abroad, and the purchase of COVID-19 test kits—may be linked to the dismissals, said Carl Thayer, an expert in Vietnam’s diplomacy at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

The Communist Party of Vietnam last month disciplined Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son over the involvement of several ministry officials and diplomats in a scandal over repatriation flights.

In a separate move, police in Vietnam on Jan. 5 arrested a former Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, Tran Viet Thai, as it widened its investigation into the scandal.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.