Vietnam Leadership Transition Will Not Loosen the Party’s Grip The past five years have seen a sharp increase in both the number of arrests of dissidents, and the severity of the sentences imposed on them. By January 22, 2021 A bust of the communist leader Ho Chi Minh at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, Vietnam, during a 2012 visit Herman Van Rompuy, then President of the European Council. Credit: Flickr/Herman Van Rompuy Advertisement The crackdown on dissidents in Vietnam has substantially worsened in the past five years under the leadership of Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the country’s ruling Communist Party. Eyes are on the Party’s upcoming National Congress to see how the leadership transition may impact the regime’s handling of political dissent.