Minh Viễn wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on August 4, 2025. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.
Sweeping Reforms and Concentrating Power in a Small Minority
The date Aug. 3, 2025 marks one year since Tô Lâm became General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee, a position widely considered the most powerful in the country. His rise followed an unprecedented upheaval: the removal of two of the “four pillars” of leadership (Võ Văn Thưởng and Vương Đình Huệ) and the death of his long-serving predecessor, Nguyễn Phú Trọng.
Tô Lâm’s ascent from the public security sector to the pinnacle of both Party and State is a first in Việt Nam’s political history, opening a period filled with unpredictable variables. His era has been defined by a flurry of reforms described as forceful, unexpected, and “unprecedented.”
One year on, the verdict from experts and observers is sharply divided. Veteran analyst Carl Thayer has lauded him as a bold and admirable leader, even surpassing his predecessor. In contrast, Professor Vũ Tường from the University of Oregon, Eugene, has voiced doubts, suggesting the reforms are more form than substance, while other researchers have warned of a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of one individual.
After a year of dramatic change, it is time to take stock: What has Tô Lâm achieved, what remains unresolved, and what do his actions signal for the future of Việt Nam?
The Campaign to “Rearrange the Realm”
The “streamlining revolution” has become the defining political slogan of General Secretary Tô Lâm’s first year, symbolizing a leadership style seen as decisive and willing to challenge entrenched interests.
While the spirit of reform is not new—a 2017 resolution under Nguyễn Phú Trọng had a similar goal but soon stagnated—Tô Lâm has translated the slogan into concrete action. Beyond streamlining and consolidating government agencies, his reforms have reached the highest administrative level: merging provinces and municipalities.
This is not a scattering of proposals but a full-scale restructuring of the national map, with the number of provinces and centrally-run cities set to drop from 63 to just 34. It is an unprecedented move with far-reaching effects on the balance of power, budget allocation, and local governance.
Unlike past reforms, often criticized as “old wine in new bottles,” Tô Lâm has chosen a more direct and sweeping approach, risking pushback from vested interests for the sake of long-term benefits like optimizing resources and downsizing the bureaucracy.
The speed and audacity of the move have surprised many. As Professor Vũ Tường told BBC News Vietnamese, “In terms of spirit and method, it’s quite bold and fast. It’s surprising to observers that Tô Lâm could do this.”
Tô Lâm himself has framed the decision as “a historic step of strategic significance,” and “a precious opportunity for us to renew our leadership mindset, innovate state management methods… and enhance public service effectiveness.”
Policy Launchpads
Alongside administrative reform, a prominent hallmark of Tô Lâm’s first year has been the introduction of a series of Central Committee resolutions covering the key pillars of national development. These were not scattered, ad-hoc policies, but were systematically designed to support each other, suggesting they were pre-planned with long-term calculations.
The four major resolutions include:
- Resolution 57-NQ/TW (2024): On breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation.
- Resolution 59-NQ/TW (2025): On international integration in the new context.
- Resolution 66-NQ/TW (2025): On reforming the development and implementation of laws to meet new national development needs.
- Resolution 68-NQ/TW (2025): On developing the private economy, recognizing it as a main driver of the national economy.
Taken together, these can be seen as four launchpads for development, corresponding to four pillars: science and technology, global integration, modern rule of law, and a market economy. Their issuance signals a more systematic policy approach, a departure from the “crossing the river by feeling for stones” mindset of earlier reforms.
Among them, Resolution 68 drew particular attention. For the first time, a high-level Party document openly acknowledged the private sector as “one of the most important driving forces of the national economy,” a significant shift from its traditional “supplementary” role.
While this signals a more open economic mindset, it also presents foreseeable challenges, as the legal and regulatory frameworks have yet to keep pace. By advancing all these reforms in a short timeframe, Tô Lâm appears to be pursuing a more comprehensive strategy for national restructuring.
What Lies Beneath the Sweeping Reforms?
However, not all developments under Tô Lâm have been viewed positively.
While on one hand, he is seen as a forceful reformer, his first year as General Secretary has also raised serious questions about his governing style and the nature of the ongoing power restructuring.
Controversial personnel decisions, the visible expansion of the Ministry of Public Security’s power, and the speed at which major policies—including constitutional amendments—have been pushed through with limited public input have fueled a growing concern. The fear is that behind these sweeping reforms lies a deliberate process of concentrating power into the hands of a small minority.
A Question of Cronyism and Nepotism
Immediately after taking office, General Secretary Tô Lâm carried out a series of senior personnel moves that have raised concerns. Most notable was the elevation of two of his close associates—Lương Tam Quang and Nguyễn Duy Ngọc—to the Politburo. Both had served as his deputies at the Ministry of Public Security, and both hail from his home province of Hưng Yên.
Crucially, neither Quang nor Ngọc met the standard formal criteria to become Politburo members, which typically require a full term on the Central Committee and experience leading a major province or central ministry.
Beyond these two, numerous other senior appointments have involved figures with close personal or regional ties to Tô Lâm. Examples include Vũ Hồng Văn being appointed as Đồng Nai People’s Committee chairman, Nguyễn Hải Ninh as Minister of Justice, Nguyễn Thanh Tùng as Hà Nội police chief, and Tô Long—Tô Lâm’s own son—as head of the Ministry of Public Security’s influential Department of External Security (A01).
This rapid concentration of key Party, government, and state posts among a network of close associates has fueled concerns about a rise in cronyism, parochialism, and a growing regional imbalance in the central power structure.
The Growing Power of the Ministry of Public Security
The Ministry of Public Security began evolving into a “super-ministry” with unprecedented authority while Tô Lâm was still its head, a trend that has only accelerated since he became General Secretary.
New laws have expanded the ministry’s scope across a wide range of civil, social, and political issues. It has begun absorbing functions previously held by other ministries, including driver testing and aviation security (from Transport), drug rehabilitation (from Labor), judicial record management (from Justice), and cybersecurity (from Information and Communications).
This expansion is also evident in personnel and economics. There has been a striking rise of police officers appointed to senior civilian government posts, such as the promotion of Hà Giang’s police chief, Phan Huy Ngọc, to chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, and the appointment of Nguyễn Hải Trung as Deputy Minister of Ethnic and Religious Affairs.
Simultaneously, the ministry’s power is expanding into the economic sphere; it now directly manages enterprises like MobiFone and holds stakes in FPT Telecom, blurring the line between public security and private business.
Tô Lâm’s transition from public security minister to General Secretary marked a critical turning point. Although no longer formally leading the ministry, his experience and extensive network are believed to give him the ability to steer its activities. This creates a special linkage between the nation’s highest political office and one of its most powerful armed forces—a combination with potentially profound implications for Việt Nam’s power structure.
Reform at Lightning Speed
A striking feature of Tô Lâm’s governing style is the speed with which major decisions are implemented. These are often watershed moves with the potential to reshape Việt Nam’s political and social structures, yet they are pushed through in remarkably short timeframes.
The provincial merger campaign, for example, went from announcement to implementation in just four months. Other major policies, including key Central Committee resolutions and even constitutional amendments, have been enacted at a similar record pace.
This urgency prompts a critical question: Does it stem from a desire to create breakthroughs for the country, or is it a strategic move to consolidate power ahead of the next Party Congress?
The suspicion is not unfounded, particularly given Tô Lâm’s history of receiving low confidence votes in the National Assembly during his tenure as Minister of Public Security.
While he can be seen as a decisive reformer, it is difficult to expect that he will become a leader who meaningfully broadens democracy. Over the past year, the gap between citizens and the legislative process appears to have widened, with public voices almost absent from the major decisions that will directly affect their daily lives.