WALL STREET JOURNAL
3-10-18

Vietnam’s Ruling Communists Push Party Leader for President

Move positions Nguyen Phu Trong to become first party leader to also serve as president since Ho Chi Minh

By James Hookway

Vietnam said Wednesday that the ruling Communist Party has decided to nominate General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to also fill the role of president, cementing the conservative leader’s growing influence.

If endorsed by the country’s legislature later this month, Mr. Trong will be the first Vietnamese leader to fill both roles since former leader Ho Chi Minh.

It might also deepen the Party’s increasingly hard-line stance against its critics, people familiar with the situation say, especially dissidents who use social media to stir up protests against China and environmental problems.

Since Mr. Trong defeated former Premier Nguyen Tan Dung in a power struggle in 2016, the government has sentenced dissidents to lengthy prison terms. Last week, two people were convicted and jailed for criticizing the government on Facebook , and the government is planning to enforce a new cybersecurity law next year which will give it more tools to chase down its opponents.

Among other things, the law requires Facebook and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to place servers locally, potentially making it easier for authorities to extract users’ data. The two companies haven’t commented directly on the legislation, but the Asia Internet Coalition to which they both belong has warned that the move could force tech firms to end Vietnam-oriented services, limiting the digital market there.

Mr. Trong, who is 74, would succeed former President Tran Dai Quang, who died after a long illness on September 21. Unlike China, power in Vietnam is nominally shared among the main four officeholders: president, prime minister, Communist Party general secretary and chair of the National Assembly.

In reality, the figure with the most support within the Politburo is the country’s main leader, who is now Mr. Trong.