Banyan
Nguyen Phu Trong wins an unprecedented third term at an unprecedented age
W
HEN COMPARED with the vibrant bustle and chaos in the rest of Hanoi where drag queens perform for rapturous audiences and break-dancers throw down moves on the city’s pavements the five-yearly congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam could not have stood in starker contrast. The exactly spaced potted palms and bouquets; the serried ranks of 1,600-odd delegates (few of them women) all dutifully raising red cards to vote; even the ban on delegates meeting to chat in the evening: everything was arranged to present a narrative of conformity, calm and consensual order within one of the world’s most secretive political organisations.