Stability Is Not Security in Vietnam

It rests not on institutions but on internal party discipline

By: Khanh Vu Duc

Delegates in their serried ranks. Photo from Vietnam+

When Vietnam’s Communist Party opened its 15th Central Committee meeting on December 22, General Secretary Tô Lâm described it explicitly as the final plenary of the 13th term before the Party’s 14th National Congress. The word “final” was not ceremonial. It was a directive. The meetin…