Vietnam unanimously elected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state.

The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.

It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.

  • king_comrade@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I think the biggest threat to communism is authoritarianism. Who here knows the Vietnamese system well? Do they have robust checks and balances to reign in bad folk seeking power? I need to do some reading.

    • Tolc@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Yah and? Do you consoder elections valid only when there is threat of far far right taking all your rights

  • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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    4 days ago

    I’m sure they’ll have free and fair elections going forward…in that great China similar power structure. That’s what always happens when electing one of them authoritarians after all. I hope the best for the people of course.

    Edit: I will say I have no idea of the ballot options and even if they had a fair election now or if other was worse.

    • Tolc@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      You have alot to learn about leninist parties. Cuba is way more democratic than america, keep crying.

      • jumjummy@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Oh look, another new account spewing propaganda about how communist countries are more democratic. Go 🌻🌻

        • Tolc@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Your ideology is shaped by epstien, bold of you to talk about propaganda

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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      4 days ago

      Vietnam has been communist for decades. This article is about the head of the communist party becoming the head of state, when previously they were separate roles filled by two different people, both from the communist party.

      This isn’t about “communism” per se, it’s about consolidation of power under one individual, in a system where those two roles were traditionally separate.

      Like, imagine if the president of the US was also the speaker of the house and the senate majority leader. Oh wait, he basically functionally is currently because of a spineless Congress doing his every bidding. So you can see the problem here, right?

      I’m not saying it’ll be just as bad, as I don’t know anything about Lam. But at the very least, it sets a dangerous precedent. He might be a fine upstanding guy, but what’s stopping the next guy from being worse? Or the guy after that? That’s why tradition and precedent can be so important in politics.

    • perestroika@slrpnk.net
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      3 days ago

      This is not “spread of communism”. Vietnam is a one-party communist state.

      They just re-elected a guy or gave him a new title (with more power).

      • Agent641@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Normally the general secretary of the communist party, the president of the state, and the prime minister of the national assembly are different people. To Lam has been general secretary for a while, while others were president and PM. It gives a separation of state and party. Now, To Lam is General Secretary AND president, the first time those two posts have been held by the same person.

        It’s not that bad of a development, the Communist party of Vietnam is nothing like the totalitarian CCP. The Vietnamese still fuck people off when they are corrupt or inept. To Lam has beef doing a pretty good job of keeping Vietnam stable, peaceful, and developing at a sustainable pace. There’s still lots of poverty, inequality and inflation, but it takes time to recover from decades of war with various other countries and keep up with modernization. It’s a nice, peaceful country.