Vietnam's Trong consolidates power with dismissals of deputy PMs

Xi Jinping meeting may have accelerated general secretary's anti-graft drive

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong speaks to the media in Hanoi on May 23, 2021. Like China's Xi Jinping, Trong has used an anti-graft drive to tighten his grip on power. © AP

TOMOYA ONISHI, Nikkei staff writer

January 6, 2023 13:26 JST

HANOI -- Vietnam party chief Nguyen Phu Trong appears to have further cemented his grip on power after parliament on Thursday approved the dismissals of two deputy prime ministers in an extraordinary session that opened the same day.

The decision was precipitated by the Vietnamese Communist Party last week stripping the pair of their Central Committee positions.