Vietnam’s Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong has likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that’s caught hundreds of government officials and business executives in its blast since 2021. The crackdown has been widely portrayed as part of Vietnam’s attempt to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of the US-China trade war and ensure the party’s legitimacy in the face of wide-ranging scandals. Increasingly, it looks like a way for Trong to st