The 8th Plenum of the 13th Central Committee (from October 2 to 8) took place in the context that Vietnam and the US elevated bilateral relations to a new level, on par with the relations between Vietnam and China and between Vietnam and Russia.
That made Beijing’s leadership very bitter, and that is also the reason why, when Xi Jinping accepted the invitation to visit Vietnam, he set the conditions that Vietnam must also upgrade China-Vietnamese relations to “new high” higher than the relationship between Vietnam and the US even though this relationship is already at its highest level (!?)
The 8th Plenum ended, with the humiliating defeat of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong that could not be hidden. Does Mr. Trong’s failure have anything to do with China’s anger and resentment towards the Hanoi leadership?
Does Mr. Xi and the Beijing leadership’s bitterness to the point of being too angry to be wise have anything to do with General Secretary Trong’s failure at the recent 8th Plenum? And how is it related to the fact that a delegation of Hanoi Party Committee officials went to Guangdong, China for training before the 8th Plenum? Even regarding the presence of Mr. Dinh Tien Dung, Politburo member, Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee in the closing ceremony of this training course?
As a reminder, China has long been the political force that supports and creates power for General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Thanks to China’s support, Mr. Trong defeated former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the 12th National Congress. Since then, Mr. Trong has taken over and has absolute power in the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Before the 12th Congress, the personnel for the General Secretary position was a one-to-one “competition” between the two leading candidates, Nguyen Phu Trong and Nguyen Tan Dung. Meanwhile, Nguyen Tan Dung continuously prevailed with very high support from the Central Executive Committee, with a rate of over 70% compared to Nguyen Phu Trong.
BBC on December 27, 2015 said: “President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China [Xi Jinping], during his visit to Vietnam in early November 2015, expressed an invitation to the current Prime Minister of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, will visit China ‘at an appropriate time’ in the future.”
At that time, researcher Duong Danh Dy commented to the BBC: “Personally, with my understanding, I think that Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung is ‘quite certain.’ So when inviting Mr. Dung, that means the Chinese side voted for General Secretary for Mr. Dung!”
However, Mr. Trong overturned the bet at the last minute. Still according to BBC, Mr. Nguyen Sinh Hung, Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam at that time, received orders and suddenly visited China on December 23-27, 2015. Mr. Hung’s visit was right before the 14th Plenum which took place on January 11-13, 2016. This is the final plenum of the Central Committee in the 11th tenure, aiming to complete personnel work in preparation for the 12th National Congress.
Commenting on the substance of Mr. Nguyen Sinh Hung’s visit to China, Nikkei Asia newspaper on December 27, 2015, shared the same opinion as the BBC, affirming that it was related to personnel issues of the 12th National Congress.
At that time, knowledgeable people said that right during Nguyen Sinh Hung’s visit to China, the Chinese National People’s Congress [the Chinese National Assembly] passed a resolution, allowing the Chinese Army to send its troops abroad to protect the achievements of Socialism. That is, China hinted that it would send troops to Vietnam.
Commenting on this visit of Mr. Nguyen Sinh Hung, BBC wrote, it is essentially “depriving” the Central Committee of its main power, aiming to eliminate Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung as a candidate for the position of the party’s chief at the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
That’s why, Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung felt something was wrong, so he proactively applied to withdraw. And then General Secretary Trong sat for the second term, with Beijing’s protection, and had absolute power in the Party because of that.
Once China brought Trong up, now it is normal for Beijing to drag him down.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
