Việt Nam 2025: The Year of Personnel Purges Ahead of the 14th Party Congress

As the final year of preparation for the 14th Party Congress scheduled for early 2026, 2025 served as a decisive period for personnel organization. This phase was defined not only by the selection of the next leadership generation but also by the removal of officials deemed unfit for the upper tiers of the political system.

What follows is a comprehensive review of disciplinary actions taken against senior officials managed by the Central Committee throughout 2025, detailing events from internal party sanctions to criminal prosecution.

Quarter 1/2025: Four Central-Level Officials Disciplined

Key Developments:

The year of purging began on March 25, 2025, during a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, Wastefulness, and Negative Acts, chaired by General Secretary Tô Lâm. [1] The committee announced that the Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Inspection Commission had already disciplined four officials under Central Committee management since the start of the year.

Notable Point:

The announcement concealed the identities and positions of the disciplined officials. While these four individuals became the first casualties of the personnel race for the 14th Congress, the specific nature of their sanctions remains undisclosed.

Quarter 2/2025: A Sharp Increase in Disciplinary Cases

Key Developments:

By the midpoint of 2025, the campaign against misconduct had intensified significantly. 

On July 7, during a meeting of the Central Steering Committee, Deputy Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission Đặng Văn Dũng reported that 11 officials under Central-level management had been disciplined by the Politburo, Secretariat, and Central Inspection Commission in the first six months alone.

Additional Data:

The crackdown was not limited to senior leadership. Data from the same period indicates a sweeping purge throughout the system:

• 230 Party organizations faced disciplinary measures.
• Over 7,230 individual Party members were disciplined.

Quarter 3/2025: Disciplinary Actions Reach Senior Central-Level Officials

Key Developments:

On Sept. 29, 2025, the Central Internal Affairs Commission reported a significant escalation in disciplinary actions. In the first nine months of the year, 19 officials under Central-level management were disciplined. [2] 

Of these, 11 were linked to cases supervised by the Steering Committee, and 3 faced criminal prosecution. Notably, 8 high-ranking officials managed by the Politburo and Secretariat were disciplined immediately following the Steering Committee’s 28th meeting.

Most Notable Cases:

The disciplinary campaign peaked on July 19 at the 12th Plenum of the Central Committee, targeting the highest echelons of former leadership. [3]

• Stripped of all Party positions: Former State Presidents Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Võ Văn Thưởng, former National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ, and former Deputy Prime Minister Lê Minh Khái.
• Expelled from the Party: Former Minister of Health Nguyễn Thị Kim Tiến.

Quarter 4/2025: Disciplinary Actions Target Heads and Deputy Heads of Agencies

Key Developments:

Major summary reports submitted to the National Assembly on Dec. 9, 2025, revealed that 40 agency heads and deputy heads had been disciplined for failing to prevent corruption within their jurisdictions. [4]

Forms of Discipline:

The disciplinary measures reflected the severity of the oversight:

• Dismissal: 18 officials
• Reprimand: 14 officials.
• Warning: 8 officials.

Year-End Summary: The Numbers Behind the Purge

Key Figures:

Across the entire tenure of the 13th Central Committee:

• 174 Central-level officials were disciplined.
• 66 of them faced criminal prosecution — including both incumbent and retired officials. [5]

For the year 2025 alone:

• 40 heads and deputy heads were disciplined for allowing corruption to occur under their leadership.
• 18 were dismissed.

Comparison with 2024:

Although 2025 was also a “pivot year” in the run-up to the 14th Congress, the number of high-ranking officials disciplined was significantly lower than in 2024.

In 2024, 68 Central-level officials were disciplined, including two former top leaders: former President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and former National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ. [6]

A Consistent Pattern: Announcements Without Names

A consistent and striking feature of the 2025 disciplinary reports was the deliberate lack of detail. The majority of decisions were released strictly as aggregate statistics, concealing the specific names and positions of the officials involved.

In the sensitive transition period leading to the 14th Party Congress, public naming is often unnecessary. Simply being removed from the personnel pipeline—through quiet dismissal or a failure to be renominated—is sufficient to terminate a high-level political career.

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Thúc Kháng wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on Dec. 19, 2025. Đàm Vĩnh Hằng translated it into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.