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Why China is getting a boost from Vietnam’s ‘blazing furnace’ anti-graft drive
The drive is shifting economic prosperity closer to the border, and that is opening a new north-south divide.
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A Vietnamese flag flies atop the State Bank building. The anti-corruption drive, termed a "blazing furnace", is running hot and there are concerns among investors that Vietnam is not all that politically stable.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Shuli Ren
Vietnam’s anti-corruption drive, which the ruling Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong likened to a “blazing furnace”, is running hot.
This year alone, two of the four pillars of power, including the chairman of the Parliament and the country’s president, left their posts amid graft allegations. Last month, Truong My Lan, a real estate tycoon and Vietnam’s richest woman, was sentenced to death for her role in a US$12 billion (S$16.2 billion) fraud case that involved Saigon Commercial Bank, one of the nation’s largest lenders. Eighty-five others were sentenced on charges ranging from bribery to abuse of power.
