To Lam, Vietnam’s newly elected President, recently concluded a three-day visit to China. Mr. Lam’s choice of China as the destination for his first overseas visit since assuming office was a testament to the new leadership to strengthen ties with its bigger communist neighbour with which it fought a war in 1979.

The welcome ceremony for Mr. Lam and his wife was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, with the highest honours reserved for heads of state, including a 21-gun salute. Mr. Lam, who succeeded long-serving Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong, who died at 80 in July 2024, moved fast in consolidating power at home and strengthening Vietnam’s partnerships abroad.

Mr. Lam was born in 1957, the year a communist insurgency began in southern Vietnam. A member of the Communist party since 1981, Mr. Lam cut his teeth in the police service. He studied at the People’s Security Academy and was recruited into the security force in October 1974 and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Minister of Public Security in April 2016, a post which would turn him into one of the most powerful men in the one-party dictatorship.

He has been a member of the 12th and 13th Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), which holds immense power in the country by directing the government’s policies.

Steak controversy

Mr. Lam had his share of controversies as well. In 2021, he was seen eating gold-plated steak at celebrity chef Nusret Gokce’s fine dining restaurant in London. Mr. Lam was in London after attending the UN COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. The video went viral on TikTok, at a time when Vietnam was navigating economic complications after the COVID-19 pandemic. The video was quickly removed from TikTok, but not before it was viewed by millions of people.

The video, posted on November 3 on Mr. Gokce’s TikTok account, showed the chef personally preparing steak dishes in front of the delegation, and himself feeding a slice of meat to Mr. Lam.

A noodle vendor in Vietnam, who went viral for impersonating chef Gokce’s typical salting style, was imprisoned for five years in 2023 for “anti-state propaganda”. The vendor had posted a video of himself shortly after Mr. Lam’s video went viral.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also raised alarm about Mr. Lam’s rise to power in Vietnam. According to the group, his “rise to power is indicative of the Vietnam government’s worsening repression, its complete intolerance of criticism, and utter hostility to basic civil and political rights”. In 2016, when Mr. Lam was the Minister of Public Security, activists were reportedly barred from meeting former U.S. President Barack Obama during his historic trip to the country.

Vietnamese security forces, under Mr. Lam, were also accused of kidnapping former party official Trinh Xuan Thanh from Berlin in July 2017, and blogger Truong Duy Nhat from Bangkok in January 2019.

German authorities said Vietnamese businessperson and former politician Thanh and a companion were abducted and dragged into a van in downtown Berlin, while Vietnam countered that he surrendered to Vietnamese authorities after evading an international arrest warrant for nearly a year. Mr. Thanh was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2018.

Truong Duy Nhat was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2020 for “abusing his position and power while on duty” as a reporter, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. Mr. Nhat worked for Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese language service, which is funded by the U.S.

According to the HRW, Vietnamese courts convicted at least 32 people for posting critical opinions about the government and sentenced them to multiple years in prison in 2021 when Mr. Lam headed the Ministry of Public Security. Mr. Lam will continue as the President of Vietnam until 2026 when the party selects a new set of officeholders at its next five-yearly congress.