Vietnam's 14th National Party Congress will likely consolidate authority around the party center while setting ambitious growth targets and pursuing administrative reforms, though these efforts will be constrained by bureaucratic risk aversion and insufficient implementation capacity at home, alongside intensifying external pressure from the United States and China. From Jan. 19-25, Vietnam's Communist Party is convening its five-yearly National Party Congress in Hanoi, a meeting that will set the country's leadership lineup and policy direction for the 2026-2030 term. Roughly 1,600 delegates are attending and will elect a new Central Committee, which in turn will select the Politburo and other top party organs that effectively determine Vietnam's paramount leadership and the composition of the party-state system's pillars of leadership. The Congress will also approve core political and economic national priorities for the next five years, including growth targets and governance agendas. Leadership outcomes will almost certainly include a decision to...
