Vietnamese Communist Occasion Removes Former FM From Politburo – The Diplomat

ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Late final week, the Vietnamese Communist Occasion (VCP) eliminated Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh from the Politburo, its apex decision-making physique, amid an unfurling corruption scandal involving his former ministry.

Vietnamese state media reported that the VCP Central Committee voted to take away Minh, together with a fellow committee member, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam. Consequently, Minh, who served as Vietnam’s international minister from 2011 till April 2021 and is the deputy prime minister in control of international affairs and diplomacy, may also lose his place on the 18-member Politburo, which is elected from among the many 200 members of the Central Committee.

In accordance with the state media studies, the pair will keep on as deputy prime ministers.

Whereas the physique didn’t present a public cause for the uncommon removals (and state media studies definitely didn’t hazard any guesses), they got here amid a concerted authorities crackdown on various COVID-19-related corruption scandals which have indicted dozens of mid- and high-ranking authorities and social gathering officers.

Final month, the VCP’s Central Inspection Committee beneficial that the Politburo and the Central Committee’s Secretariat self-discipline the complete Ministry of International Affairs, as much as and together with the present minister, Bui Thanh Son, over a wide-ranging corruption scandal involving government-organized COVID-19 repatriation flights.

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The scandal concerned officers charging Vietnamese residents extort charges for seats on round 400 repatriation flights organized for these stranded overseas in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds thus garnered, that are estimated to have exceeded $200 million, had been then appropriated by corrupt officers.

Up to now, greater than 35 individuals from the international ministry and different ministries have been arrested over the scheme, together with high-ranking officers like former Deputy Minister of International Affairs To Anh Dung and former ambassador to Japan, Vu Hong Nam.

This got here months after the VCP expelled a number of officers for involvement in a scandal involving the procurement of overpriced COVID-19 check kits, which netted an estimated $172 million for these concerned.

It’s extremely uncommon for a member of the Politburo to be eliminated exterior the five-yearly VCP Nationwide Occasion Congress, the subsequent of which isn’t scheduled to happen till 2026.  Whereas it stays unclear whether or not Minh was instantly concerned in both of the above scandals, the truth that his uncommon elimination from the Central Committee adopted so carefully on the heels of the Central Inspection Committee’s suggestion, means that the 2 occasions are related.

In accordance with a report by the state-run Voice of Vietnam, the purge of officers may properly prolong additional, with the outlet claiming that the nation’s Nationwide Meeting is scheduled to carry a unprecedented session in Hanoi on Thursday. It acknowledged that the assembly will deal with “a number of pressing points, together with personnel.”