Vietnam's ruling Communist Party gathers for a congress next week that will help shape the country's global role for the next five years, selecting new leaders and setting policy as tensions bubble with Beijing and Joe Biden settles in at the White House.
The Communist Party's 13th Congress, from Jan. 25 to Feb. 2, will cement leadership looking to leverage Vietnam's economic success to bolster legitimacy. Key to that will be the challenge of balancing relations with China and the United States, for which Vietnam has become an important strategic partner, in a world economy that's been dislodged from previous certainties.
Buoyed by the redirection of global trade in its favor because of a U.S.-China row, Vietnam is steadily growing into one of the world's most important tech manufacturing hubs, as well as a center for garment-making, in an economy on track to recover faster than most after the coronavirus pandemic.