Asia | All-consuming fires

Vietnam’s ruling communists rush to fill the country’s top jobs

Amid an anti-graft drive, they will struggle to restore an aura of calm

To Lam
Photograph: EPA

THE MONOLITHIC façade erected by one of the world’s most secretive ruling parties is intended to project awesome power, competence and granite-faced consensus. Yet the cracks in the Vietnamese Communist Party’s front of late have been only too obvious to both ordinary Vietnamese and foreign businesses.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “All-consuming fires”

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