The 12th Politburo, formally the Political Bureau of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV, Vietnamese: Bá» ChÃÂnh trá» Ban Chấp hành trung ðáng ÃÂảng Cá»Âng sản Viá»Ât Nam Khoá XII), was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee (CC) on 27 January 2016 during the 12th National Congress to serve for a five-year electoral term. The Politburo is a central leading organ of the CPV Central Committee tasked with directing the general orientation of the party and state. In this sense, it functions as the highest political organ of the CPV when the Party's National Congress and the Central Committee are adjourned. Since Vietnam is a communist state that bases its governance system on the principle that "the Party leads and the State manages", the Politburo also function as the highest decision-making institution in Vietnam. The Politburo convenes meetings several times a month to discuss and decide policy, and the Secretariat, another central leading organ, ensures that said policies are executed by the relevant institution in question, such as the National Assembly of Vietnam if the policy concerns law-making, or the Party's Central Organisation Commission if it concerns cadre policy. The total number of meetings the 12th Politburo convened has not been publicly disclosed to the media. Some have been publicly reported, however, and are listed below (see "Convocations" section).
The 12th National Congress adopted a resolution that stated the CPV needed to establish a streamlined, efficient political system and combat corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. Shortly after his re-election to the Politburo and as General Secretary of the Central Committee on 27 January 2016, Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng ramped up his anti-corruption campaign. ÃÂinh La ThÃÂng was removed from the Politburo in May 2017 by the 12th CC's 5th Plenary Session when the 12th Central Inspection Commission started investigating him for mismanaging the state-owned enterprise PetroVietnam, resulting in a loss of 900 billion Vietnamese dongs (around 40 million United States dollars); he was arrested in December 2017 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison in January 2018. In tandem with the anti-corruption drive, Prime Minister Nguyá» n Xuân Phúc began to streamline the government by cutting the number of deputy prime ministers from five to four and ministries from 26 to 22. Institutionally, the campaign was strengthened by appointing six members of the 12th Politburo to serve in the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption, providing the Central Inspection Commission with the ability to audit and supervise personnel property declarations under the Politburo and Secretariat's management, and seven central inspection teams were established to investigate serious corruption cases that drew public attention. This campaign developed alongside a campaign to strengthen party morality and MarxistâÂÂLeninist ideology and to combat perceived ideological evils such as liberal democratic values, self-evolution and self-transformation.
Unlike in the 11th Politburo when Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng was involved in a power struggle against Nguyá» n Tấn Dà ©ng, then Prime Minister, the 12th Politburo was hallmarked by his dominance over decision-making. Considering his age (above the age limit of 65) and the CPV's Charter that limits general secretaries to serve a maximum of two five-year terms, commentators such as Hai Hong Nguyen believed Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng would leave the office at the 13th National Congress in 2021. Of the 17 members of the 12th Politburo, only Trá»Âng and ÃÂinh Thế Huynh did not meet the criteria to be General Secretary for the 13th Central Committee. The 13th National Congress granted Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng an exception from the age and term limit, however, allowing him to serve a third term, leading political scientist Hung Nguyen to conclude: "The fact that Trá»Âng was given special consideration twice â in 2016 for age exception and in 2021 for term limit â proves that he is the most powerful person in the country and, at the present time, irreplaceable."
The number of Politburo members increased from 16 during the 11th term to 19. Of these, three members were women (Nguyá» n Thá» Kim Ngân, Tòng Thá» Phóng and Trðáng Thá» Mai), the highest proportion of women serving in a given Politburo term in the CPV's history. Of the 19 members, 15 were members of the 14th National Assembly of Vietnam. A record-setting four members served as government ministers. Moreover, according to scholar Nguyen Manh Hung, "More important is the dominance by people with a public security background in the new leadership, perhaps in response to the need for political stability as well as the need to manage human rights issues when dealing with Western countries." Additionally, several Politburo members experienced health problems during their term. ÃÂinh Thế Huynh was on sick leave from June 2017 and was relieved of his formal duties in March 2018. Trần ÃÂại Quang, the President of Vietnam, having started to experience health issues in June 2017, died on 21 September 2018 at the age of 61. Thirteen days later, on 30 September, the Politburo voted to nominate Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng for state president. Shortly after his election to the presidency, rumours started to surface that Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng was also suffering from health problems, and on 14 April 2019, he purportedly suffered a stroke when visiting Kiên Giang province, though it was not officially confirmed. Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng recovered, and in 2020, under his leadership, the 12th term disciplined Politburo members Nguyá» n VÃÂn Bình and Hoàng Trung Hải for defaming the party. The two retained their Politburo membership but could not seek reelection at the 13th National Congress. Of the remaining fourteen members who had not been arrested, died, disciplined or taken health leave, eight were reelected to the 13th Politburo (Nguyá» n Phú Trá»Âng, Tô Lâm, Nguyá» n Xuân Phúc, Phạm Minh ChÃÂnh, Vðáng ÃÂình Huá»Â, Phạm Bình Minh, Trðáng Thá» Mai and Võ VÃÂn Thðá»Âng).