Good morning! Hello to all new readers, and welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly, written by Ho Chi Minh City-based reporter Mike Tatarski. The Friday newsletter is always free to read.
Earlier this week I published an article for paying supporters about the ongoing Vạn Thịnh Phát scandal and the disturbing recent arrest of a Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs official for allegedly disclosing classified information. If you haven’t already, you can upgrade your subscription for US$8/month or US$90/year below.
Today’s newsletter is abbreviated as I spent most of yesterday at the 2024 ESG Investor Conference, where I participated in a panel on the perils of greenwashing. Thanks to Van and Mimi of Raise Partners (and previous podcast guests) for the invitation.
Something to note: I’ve mentioned a couple of times that General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng hadn’t been seen in public for weeks, even missing the huge event for the 70th anniversary of Vietnam’s victory over the French at Điện Biên Phủ last week. He reappeared yesterday at the opening of the very eventful (see below) 9th Conference of the 13th Party Central Committee.
On to the news.
Before getting into updates: the wet season arrived in HCMC with a vengeance on Wednesday evening.
More Leadership Turmoil
Roughly 30 seconds after I scheduled this for publication, the long-running rumor mill proved accurate once again: Trương Thị Mai, Permanent Member of the Secretariat, resigned at the start of the above-mentioned Party Central Committee.
This means yet another member of the Politburo is out, and a body that had 18 members at the start of 2023 was momentarily down to 12 (more on that in a minute).
Though not one of the ‘four pillars’ that make up Vietnam’s collective leadership, Mai’s position could be considered the fifth most powerful in the government. (Recall that two of those pillars are currently vacant.)
She was immediately replaced by General Lương Cường, Director of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army. At the risk of stating the obvious, this means another member of the security/military side of the government moving into a position vacated by a civilian.
Like the other recent high-level resignations, no details were provided other than that Mai had “committed violations” that “negatively affected the reputation of the Party and herself.”
We were already in uncharted territory for the Vietnamese government, and this pushed things further into the unknown.
Finally, four new Politburo members were named: Lê Minh Hưng, Nguyễn Trọng Nghĩa, Bùi Thị Minh Hoài, and Đỗ Văn Chiến. Full disclosure: I don’t know who any of them are, but for those tracking regional balance (or lack thereof), three are from northern provinces.
We Love Billionaires?
For months, I’ve observed a curious obsession with billionaires among Vietnamese media, and especially VnExpress International - and this obsession goes beyond Vietnam.
Below are two screenshots of recent articles about billionaires or the richest people in various countries:
There are many more examples, including from other news outlets, and the general tone is one of admiration or even aspiration. The message seems to be that these people are fascinating and possibly even good simply because they are incredibly wealthy.
I have no insight into why these articles continue to appear, but I find it genuinely strange, especially in a nominally socialist country.
Perhaps it is fitting - and even stranger - that a government decree issued last week aims for the country to “have at least 10 billionaires and five businesspeople who are ‘most powerful’ in Asia by 2030.”
This is a bizarre goal to be set by a national government, and more billionaires don’t necessarily equate to a healthier economy.
Currently, Vietnam has six billionaires: Phạm Nhật Vượng of Vingroup, Nguyễn Thị Phương Thảo of Sovico Group (VietJet’s parent corporation), Trần Đình Long of Hòa Phát Group, Hồ Hùng Anh of Techcombank, Nguyễn Đăng Quang of Masan Group, and Trần Bá Dương of Thaco Group.
There are probably more off-book billionaires - Trương Mỹ Lan, for example, had more wealth than those six combined if you count what she took from Saigon Commercial Bank.
I’m curious what others make of this billionaire fixation - any thoughts?
A Rash of Labor Deaths
Now for a total shift in tone.
On April 22, an accident at a cement factory in Yên Bái Province killed seven workers and injured three others. The group was performing maintenance on a cement mill when it unexpectedly began spinning, killing all seven men working inside.
On May 1, six employees of the Bình Minh Wood Production Company in Đồng Nai died when a boiler exploded at their factory. Workers had reportedly just finished repairing the boiler when it blew up.
The director of the company, a Chinese national, was detained afterward as police investigated possible management violations leading up to the deadly incident. Seven other foreign nationals have been banned from exiting Vietnam as officials continue to look into the accident.
On May 6, three people working on the construction of a 500kV power transmission line in Hà Tĩnh Province died when heavy rain triggered a landslide on the hill they were on.
A week later, three people died when soil and rocks slid into a coal pit in Quảng Ninh Province. This followed an early April accident in the same province when four coal miners died from toxic fumes in a mining shaft.
Labor accidents aren’t exactly uncommon here, but this many deadly incidents in rapid succession are unusual. I wonder whether we’ll see a high-level push to improve workplace safety in high-risk manufacturing and mining operations.
Extra Links:
Viet Nam’s budding food forests (Mekong Eye)
Politics of Memory in Vietnam: A War Fought Twice (Fulcrum)
Gimme some truth (Mekong Review - $)
On foot and by drone, radio tracking helps rehabilitate pangolins in Vietnam (Mongabay)
What to See, Taste, and Do on a Late-Afternoon Walk in Phú Mỹ Hưng (Saigoneer)
Have a great weekend!
Billionaires - the coverage is about legitimacy and social license to operate. Creating +ve perceptions of the wealthy (derived from [insert various legitimate and illegitimate sources e.g. extraction, extortion, corruption, drugs, economic rent etc]) is called 'proactive PR'. It's strategic public knowledge management, aimed at avoiding the inconvenience of dealing with peasants lining up with pitchforks etc. Those impressions are in turn created by well-paid experts who focus on the challenge directly in front of them vs the wider societal challenge created by wealth inequality. Stiglitz has a lot to say about the latter, and it's nothing good. Unlike your beautiful animal pics, which I cannot praise enough.
This article is particularly distinguished because the punch line is delivered by a lovely dog rather than a cat