Before the extraordinary meeting of the party’s Central Committee on August 3 this year, public opinion on social networks said that To Lam was looking for every way to remove Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh from the race for the position of General Secretary.
An internal source of thoibao.de at that time revealed that To Lam had his henchmen conduct a search to find evidence to depose the government leader but was unsuccessful.
Most recently, on October 4, the state-controlled media reported that Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan – Chairwoman of Advanced International Joint Stock Company (AIC), continued to be wanted according to the decision of the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Police Department. The public is asking why, despite being surrounded by enemies from all sides, General Secretary cum State President To Lam, for what purpose, does he continue to order the arrest of Nhan? Is this related to the future of PM Chinh?
The Israeli press, quoted by RFA Vietnamese, said that the real reason behind the arrest of Nhan was the arms deal. The deeper reason was the competition within the Party, between PM Chinh, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Minister of Public Security To Lam.
According to RFA, General Secretary Trong was the one who decided to choose the intelligence satellite equipment of IAI – an Israeli company. PM Chinh is the one responsible for this project. At the same time, the plan to arrest Nhan was made, just a few days before the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the 13th term took place, on May 4-10, 2022.
It is known that Nhan is currently living in Germany, and perhaps, she has completed the procedures to apply for political asylum. She is being protected very closely, with many layers, not only by the security and police forces of the host country, but also by the forces of General Intelligence Department of the Vietnam Army.
Nhan is the person who holds many secrets, related to the weapons procurement contracts of Vietnam’s Defense Ministry. These are top secret issues of the country, even the Ministry of Public Security is not known.
A question that has been raised is, late General Secretary Trong was the one who decided to buy equipment from IAI – an Israeli company, and PM Chinh was the one responsible for the project. So, why did Trong and Lam try to arrest Nhan in order to remove Chinh from the PM position?
Some opinions say that, like General Secretary To Lam, PM Chinh was once a close associate of former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and was planted in the “Post-Ba Dung Plan” to return and take full power in the four “Four Pillars” positions, including the position of National Assembly Chairman of Tran Thanh Man.
While Lam is under a lot of pressure from the majority within the Party’s senior leadership, including conservative elements who support the pro-Beijing policy of late General Secretary Trong, typically a group of pro-China military generals.
Before the 7th Plenum, Trong repeatedly hinted that he would bring Nhan back to the country for handling. It is highly likely that when he was alive, Trong knew clearly that there were signs of sharing commissions among military leaders in the weapons purchase contracts of the Defense Ministry but there was no specific evidence.
However, up to now, in order to control the military faction, perhaps Lam used the story of Nhan Ato rearrange the personnel of the Defense Ministry and the military faction. He knew very well that organizing the kidnapping of Nhan at this time was impossible, and was foolish, and should never be done.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
