Vietnam is a one-party state, dominated for decades by the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). Although some independent candidates are technically allowed to run in legislative elections, most opposition is banned in practice. Freedom of expression, religious freedom, and civil society activism are tightly restricted. Even by Vietnam’s authoritarian standards, in recent years, and particularly in 2024, the authorities have engaged in one of the widest-ranging crackdowns on dissent in decades.

• CPV general secretary Nguyễn Phu Trọng died in July. He had shifted Vietnam from consensus-style authoritarianism to essentially one-man rule, had increasingly cracked down on dissent, and reinvolved the military in politics. The Poliburo in August announced that Tô Lâm, who was close to the security services, would be Trọng’s interim replacement.
• In October, authorities restored a power-sharing agreement that divided senior duties among the CPV general secretary, the president, the prime minister, and the National Assembly head, effectively diluting Tô Lâm’s power.
• Vietnam’s government continued to prosecute a massive anticorruption campaign—partly to actually address corruption and partly as a means for top leaders to purge enemies. The effort led to President Võ Văn Thưởng’s resignation in March over unspecified “violations and shortcomings,” a term understood to mean corruption. A major tycoon was sentenced to death in April for her alleged role in a $12 billion bank fraud case, while the chairman of the parliament resigned the same month, like Thưởng because of unspecified “violations and shortcomings.”
• The government intensified a crackdown on journalists, activists, and other dissidents during the year—to the point that it was characterized by many analysis as the most severe year of repression in decades—with much of it overseen by Tô Lâm. The repression included the arrests of leading writers, labor activists, environmental activists, and other prominent figures, some of whom were not known as government antagonists. In January, rights group the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) labeled Vietnam one of the worst jailers of journalists of any country in the world. The 88 Project, a watchdog group, reported that the Vietnamese government was holding at least 200 political prisoners at year’s end.
• The government made increased efforts to combat human trafficking during the year, including by prosecuting more suspected traffickers and adopting a revised antitrafficking law that strengthened protections for victims.

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For additional background information, see last year’s full report.