Hạnh is an experienced accountant in a state-owned company in Vietnam. She’s a holder of an advanced international certificate, and, unlike many of her peers, is proficient in English. One would have expected her to easily climb up the ladder at work. Yet Hạnh’s career ran into a roadblock: her supervisor informed her that she was not fully qualified to become head of her section. The reason? She was not a member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), her boss told her in private.

In the end, Hạnh had no choice but to conform to both the wishes of her boss and her family, and applied to join the CPV. “Party membership would be beneficial,” she says. “It does not matter whether you are convinced or not.”

Such is life in Vietnam, where the Communist Party dominates. The CPV became the ruling party in north Vietnam in 1954 and its power expanded across the whole country after the fall of Saigon in 1975. In official discourse, it is often said that “the Party is above the state”. According to Vietnam’s Constitution, the CPV is the de facto supreme leader. Non-communist parties are effectively banned on Vietnamese soil, and it is taboo to call for party pluralism. Việt Tân, or the Vietnam Reform Revolutionary Party, is an opposition party in exile and is regularly vilified in the CPV-led mainstream media. Those linked to Việt Tân in the country are seen as “reactionary” and subjected to state harassment or even imprisonment. Vietnamese citizens have only one choice: join the Party, or nothing at all.

• Tags: Issue 33, Thiện Việt, Vietnam