The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPC) recently signed and issued a new "Regulation on the names of positions, categories of positions and directory of leadership positions in the political system."When the Fourteenth Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam is about to be held in early 2026, this new document, which entered into force on September 8, greatly changes the layer structure of Vietnam's leading cadres.

The most important changes are: the top-level position of the Vietnamese Party and the main leader of the country, which is commonly referred to as the "four horseback" of the outside world, is officially changed to the "five horseback" - General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, President of the State of Vietnam, Prime Minister of the Government of Vietnam, President of the National Assembly of Vietnam, and Secretary of the Central Office of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

The current secretary of the Central Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Chen Jingzhi, signed the document on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam. He himself became a member of the highest leadership. Prior to this, the secretary of the Central Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, was the "fifth place" in the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam after the "four chariots".

Chen Jinping speech picture/Vietnam Communist Party Central portal website

¡°Number 5¡±

The culture of the "four chariots" in Vietnamese politics can be traced back to the "four pillars" of the "four pillars" of the first feudal dynasty of Vietnam more than a thousand years ago; during the Nguyen dynasty, the rank was higher than the "four great universities" of Shandong and the governor, and formed a long-term "four pillars" pattern.

After Vietnam's reform and opening up, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 1991 and the constitutional revision the following year actually determined the leading positions of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the President of the State, the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly in Vietnam's party and government system. Since then, successive general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, president of the state, prime minister of the government and president of the National Assembly have all ranked in the top four in the current Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. According to the historical tradition of the outside world, they are called the "troika" of Vietnamese politics.

In March 2022, under the leadership of then-General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Fuji, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam issued a list of leadership positions and positions of the central to grassroots political system, which listed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Secretary General, the President of the State, the Prime Minister of the Government and the President of the Congress as the only four "main leaders of the Party and the country".

However, it is worth noting that the permanent secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam has also gained a special status in this list: he is ranked first among the "senior leaders" after the "main leaders", higher than other Politburo members. In other words, the permanent secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam ranks fifth in the Politburo, which has changed from a practice to an institutional arrangement.

At the time, the permanent secretary of the Central Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, is the "70s" cadres Woolin award. When Nguyen Richi led the "melting oven" anti-corruption movement, as the general secretary and as the head of the central anti-corruption anti-negative committee, Woolin was awarded as the permanent secretary and as the deputy director. In March 2023, Nguyen Woolin replaced the resignation of guilty Woolin, becoming the president of the country of Vietnam.

The rich speech picture.

However, only a year later, in March 2024, Zhang Zemin resigned due to his old minister's involvement in the construction of corruption cases. Soon, Zhang Zemin, who succeeded Zhang Zemin as secretary of state, also resigned. During this special period, Liang Qing, director of the People's Army General Political Bureau, was appointed secretary of the Central Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

As a result of the changes in political situation, the status of the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam in political life has gradually improved. In the first two months after Liang Xiaoping chaired the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the longest-running leader since the opening up of the Vietnam Revolution, Nguyen Fukiji, eventually died on July 19th. During this time, Liang Xiaoping had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of Nguyen Fukiji, accompanied by Nguyen Fukiji, accompanied by Putin and the senior cadres of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam to meet and shake hands, and guided Putin to the seat of Nguyen Fukiji.

In addition, Liang Qiang, Ruan Fuzhong's successor Su Lin, Prime Minister Fan Mingzheng and President Chen Qingmin of the National Assembly attended a very small "meeting of major leaders", and sat side by side on the rostrum at the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The "meeting of main leaders" is a temporary arrangement during Ruan Fuzhong's serious illness. At that time, some analysts believed that Liang Qiang's equal seat with Su Lin and others in this series of meetings meant that he was already a member of the new "troika".

After Nguyen's death, Sullin was elected Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, and Liang became the President of the State of Vietnam. The Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam was chaired by Chen Jingbiring, chairman of the former Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

For example, on August 25th this year, Chen Jinxiu went to Ho Chi Minh City and announced that Ruan Wennian, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, would no longer serve as the secretary of the municipal party committee for the term of 2020-2025, and would be appointed as the executive deputy leader (leader Su Lin) of the document drafting group of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam; Chen Liuguang, secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, took over as secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee.

Sully applauded the picture.

According to past practice, the transfer of cadres at the level of "senior leaders" such as Ruan Wennian and Chen Liuguang needs to be announced by members of the "troika" who are the "main leaders". When Nguyen Van Nien became the secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee in 2020 and Dinh Tien Dung became the secretary of the Hanoi Municipal Party Committee in 2021, the then President of the Vietnamese National Assembly was present in person.

However, in July 2024, Bui Thi Minh Hoai, member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, took over as secretary of the Hanoi Municipal Party Committee after Dinh Tien Dung resigned. Only Liang Qiang, then permanent secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, attended the ceremony. Considering the special circumstances at that time, some analysts thought it was just an "accidental move". However, in August this year, Chen Jinxiu attended the transfer of the post of secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, which showed that this was not a temporary arrangement, but that the position of "No.5 position" was already higher than that of ordinary members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Intensive adjustments

According to the official media, the catalogue adjustment is intended to be "as a basis for the synchronous implementation of cadres' work and personnel management"; is intended to build a "refined and efficient political system", to the "unity, integrity, synchronization and interconnectivity" of posts and positions in the political system; is intended to clear up unreasonable adjustments of posts and positions, overcome deficiencies in cadres' work; and so on.

In political logic, this adjustment emphasizes "refinement and efficiency", and the refinement of the number of central ministries implemented by Vietnam at the beginning of this year, and the major reforms of the "refinement of the river mountain" in the consolidation of the provincial government districts, in conjunction with the "refinement of the river mountain - from the historical legacy to the new era of national development", the Vietnamese official media "Labor" in July published a commentary on "refinement of the river mountain - from the history to the new era of national development", highly appreciated the actions of Vietnam's well-known monarch Nguyen D. Ming's Emperor in the re-planning of the province and the unification of the south-north, and promoting the standardization of the

However, combing the full text of the new regulations, we can find that there is an obvious trend in this catalogue adjustment: the political status of positions in the Communist Party of Vietnam has generally risen.

For example, the Vietnamese ¡°leader¡± sequence has always consisted of two groups, following the ¡°main leader¡± of ¡°high-level leaders¡±, originally referring to members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, secretaries, chairmen of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Motherland Front, vice chairmen of the country, vice chairman of the government, vice chairman of the Congress, dean of the Supreme Court and chief prosecutor of the Supreme Prosecutor¡¯s Office. However, the updated ¡°high-level leaders¡± group joined the chairman of the CPC Central Inspection Committee, ministers of the CPC Central Committee, directors of the CPC Central Office, directors of the Ho Chi Minh National Political Academy directly belonging to the CPC Central Committee, and were listed in the order before the vice cha

In other words, since September this year, the heads of various ministries and commissions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam have been explicitly listed in the sequence of "leaders", ranking slightly higher than that of deputy prime ministers of the government, and their political status is much higher than that of general members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, government ministers and provincial party secretaries at the next level.

The deputy leaders of the central ministries with the status of members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam are listed in the same group as the ministers of the government, but are ranked ahead of the ministers. The deputy secretaries of the Hanoi Municipal Committee and the deputy secretaries of the Ho Chi Minh Municipal Committee with the status of members of the Central Committee are also listed in the same group as the ministers of the government and the secretaries of the General Provincial Committee, and are ranked slightly higher in order than the people's committees of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh (mayors).

According to incomplete statistics, from August 25 to September 18, in less than a month, Vietnam has adjusted the positions of more than 30 officials at the provincial level and above, not only involving the Central Office of the CPC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other key departments, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong and other major municipalities, but also involving several members of the CPC Central Political Bureau, secretary of the Central Office and deputy prime minister.

On August 25th, Ruan Qingyi, executive deputy secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Committee, was transferred to the post of Minister of Policy and Strategy Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Ruan Qingyi, who has long been regarded by international public opinion as the "rising star" in Vietnamese politics, is whose father is former Vietnamese Prime Minister Ruan Jinyong.

After Ruan Fuzhong died in July 2024 and Su Lin took over as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Ruan Jinyong made many public appearances and met with Su Lin. In January 2025, Nguyen Thanh Ngai, who had served as the Minister of Construction for more than three years, was transferred to the executive deputy secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, and half a year later, he took up the new post of Minister of Policy and Strategy of the Central Committee. According to the new ranking after September 8th, Ruan Qingyi has entered the ranks of Vietnam's "senior leaders". At the age of 49, he has thus become the youngest "leader" in Vietnam.

The 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam is planned to be held in early 2026, which makes this round of personnel transfer in Vietnam attract more attention from the outside world.

Press Release: Caoran@chinanews.com.cn

Edited by:Ðì·½Çå