Read coverage of this topic in Vietnamese
Updated on March 10, 2025 at 4:35 p.m. ET
Since becoming Vietnam’s top leader last August, Communist Party General Secretary To Lam has tightened his grip on the party-state – placing loyalists in key posts to advance his big government shake-up plan.
In the latest sign of how far Lam wants to take an overhaul he says will make the economy more competitive, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính, was photographed at a party function early this month holding a vastly redrawn new map of Vietnam, which was later leaked on Facebook.
The proposed new map of Vietnam, a country the size of Finland or New Mexico with a population of 100 million people, has 32 provinces and province-level big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City instead of the current 63.
There is no official confirmation of the remapping plan.
This drastic rejig of provinces and districts is part of Lam’s central government re-organization – the elimination of five of 21 state ministries, and the shuttering of state and party offices and institutions.
What would revamping Vietnam’s provinces do for Lam politically?
Even before Lam secured the top job last August, all eyes in Vietnamese politics were on the next National Party Congress, in January 2026, when the ruling party’s Central Committee selects the general secretary and the Politburo, a key power center of the one-party state.
Lam – who took over after the death of his predecessor, Nguyen Phu Trong – is keen to win a full term at the 14th Party Congress, but his re-election as general secretary is not pre-ordained and his government overhaul plan could face opposition over mass layoffs.
A dramatic reduction in the number of provinces in Vietnam implies similar cuts in the number of representatives sent by localities and government bodies to the next party congress – seen by critics as a recipe for a further concentration of power in Lam’s hands.
In one-party Vietnam, direct elections are held for local People’s Councils and the National Assembly -- but all candidates are pre-approved by the ruling party.
Since Vietnam has previously only added delegates to the party congress, talk of reducing them from the current 1,500 has raised concerns that Lam can cull critics and ensure that only supporters are represented in Hanoi next January.
To bolster his high-level support, Lam has filled the ranks of the 18-member Politburo with allies from his long career as a top police official and from his native Hung Yen province, an hour south of the capital Hanoi.
What high-level political questions arise from Lam’s big government reshuffle?
Hanoi political observers are debating how the downsizing of regional and local governments will affect the allocation of posts on the Central Committee.
Any consolidation of provinces and top-tier cities could reduce provincial representation or lead to a shrinkage of the Central Committee.
Below the provincial level, Vietnam has about 700 district administrative units and more than 10,000 at the communal level. Many could be affected by the downsizing.
Reducing regional representation would reverse a trend since Vietnam introduced Doi Moi economic reforms in 1986 that saw provincial leaders make up about one-third of central committee members.
It is not yet clear if the January party confab will retain the configuration of 180 official members and 20 alternates established five years earlier at at the 13th Party Congress.
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Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Mike Firn and Paul Eckert.