Nguyễn Phú Trọng era — 'Blazing Furnace' (Vietnam)

Doctrine — stated goals and content

Continuation of the socialist-oriented market economy on the economic side — deeper trade integration through CPTPP (in force for Vietnam 14 Jan 2019) and EVFTA (in force 1 Aug 2020), continued SOE equitisation, and a sustained FDI-and-export growth model — paired with a Party-discipline programme that Trọng framed as a "Blazing Furnace" (đốt lò) anti-corruption campaign from roughly 2016 onward. The campaign served three functions simultaneously: genuine prosecution of large graft cases (the Việt Á COVID test-kit scandal, the Vạn Thịnh Phát / SCB case, the FLC and Tân Hoàng Minh bond-market frauds), restoration of Party primacy over a premiership that had drifted toward personalistic SOE patronage under Dũng, and a purge instrument that drove unprecedented Politburo-level resignations including two sitting State Presidents (Phúc 2023, Thưởng 2024) and the National Assembly Chair (Huệ 2024). On the left-right reading best suited to single-party systems, the Trọng line is statist- reformist: tighter Party discipline and re-centralised decision rights, but with the underlying market-and-trade opening preserved and in several dimensions accelerated. The era ended with Trọng's death on 19 July 2024 and immediate handover to Tô Lâm.