The Fallout From Vietnam’s Communist Party Congress The outcome reflects a considerable degree of caution, and a desire to balance the party’s internal factions. By February 02, 2021 Advertisement The Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) completed its 13th Party Congress, shortened at the last minute to deal with a recent COVID-19 outbreak. The nearly 1,600-strong Congress elected a 200-member Central Committee, which then elected the 18-member Politburo that will lead the country for the next five years. Vietnamese politics is notoriously opaque. But there are a few known things: factions within the party exist, and engage in no-holds barred competition. But the Vietnamese political system prides itself on stability, and the leadership goes to great lengths to balance the factions out.