To Lam was already Vietnam’s top leader when last month’s Communist Party congress began. But as it ended on Jan. 23 with him amassing more power, he seemed quicker to smile, to shake hands with comrades in Hanoi’s red-draped convention hall, and in a rush to do more.

上月越南共产党全国代表大会开幕时，苏林已是该国最高领导人。但随着大会在1月23日落幕，权力进一步集中到他身上，苏林的笑容显得更加频繁，他在河内铺满红色装饰的会场里与同志们握手，显露出急于大展宏图的姿态。

At a news conference after the new Politburo list confirmed that he would serve dual roles as head of party and president — a break from Vietnam’s power-sharing norm — he was the first of several officials to enter the room and the first to sit down. His dark wood chair in the center was much larger than the others.

新一届政治局名单确认他将打破越南权力分配惯例，同时担任越共总书记和国家主席双重职务，随后的记者会上，他是最早步入会场的几位官员之一，也是第一个落座的。在中央位置，他那把深色木质座椅的尺寸，远比其他座位更为宽大。

“This congress convenes in a new context, requiring a new vision,” he told a group of mostly state-employed reporters. “This time,” he added, “what’s more important is action.”

“这次大会在一个全新的背景下召开，需要新的愿景，”他对一群主要来自官方媒体的记者表示。他还说，“而这一次，更重要的是行动。”

Mr. Lam, 68, is now Vietnam’s most powerful leader in decades, consolidating control at a turning point for Asia, with Washington focused elsewhere and Beijing trying to escape a national malaise with dominance in exports and military hardware.

现年68岁的苏林如今已成为越南数十年来权力最大的领导人，其权力巩固正值亚洲局势的转折点——华盛顿的注意力投向别处，而北京正试图通过出口和军备优势来摆脱国家发展滞缓的困境。

He is not quite like anything this one-party state has elevated before: a former security chief with a Ph.D.; a pro-business reformer; a divorced father of four; a globalist partial to fine wine and Kenny G. And he rose by unusual means: not through compromises among the ruling party’s top ranks and factions, but by insisting that he could make Vietnam a rich, developed country by 2045 — and cutting down rivals to build a bloc of loyalists who owe their fate to him.

他与这个一党制国家过往提拔的领导者都截然不同：他是拥有博士学位的前公安部长，也是亲商改革派；是离过婚、有四个孩子的父亲，也是青睐美酒与肯尼·基音乐的全球主义者。他的崛起之路非同寻常：并非通过执政党高层派系间的妥协，而是凭借到2045年将越南建设成为富强发达国家的坚定承诺，同时清除竞争对手，培植起与他命运紧密相连的效忠阵营。

1月23日，在政治局名单公布后举行的新闻发布会上，确认苏林（中）将同时担任越共总书记和国家主席双重职务——这打破了越南权力分立的惯例。

He became party secretary in 2024 after leading the Ministry of Public Security during an anti-corruption drive that sidelined other contenders. Then he expanded his reach with an overhaul of government, consolidating 63 provinces into 34 and enforcing party rules that say provincial leaders cannot come from where they hold office, clearing space for allies.

2024年，他以公安部部长身份主导一场反腐运动，排挤掉其他竞争者之后，出任越共中央总书记。随后，他又通过重组政府扩大权力版图：将全国63个省级行政区合并为34个，并严格执行领导干部不得在原籍任职的党内规定，从而为安插盟友腾出空间。

He outlined his vision in Politburo resolutions that prioritized technology (Resolution 57), made private enterprise the economy’s driving force (68), declared that Vietnam’s laws must serve business rather than control it (66), and pushed foreign policy further toward proactive “international integration” (59).

他在政治局决议中勾勒出其治国蓝图：优先发展科技（第57号决议），将私营企业确立为经济驱动力（第68号决议），宣告越南法律必须服务于商业而非管控商业（第66号决议），并推动外交政策进一步转向积极主动的“国际融入”（第59号决议）。

去年在越南胡志明市开设的国际咖啡连锁店。

They are widely seen as the most significant overhauls since Vietnam’s economic opening in the 1980s — if implemented. Mr. Lam’s critics fear his style is closer to autocratic cronyism, noting that he is quick to detain critics and already favors politically connected conglomerates with low productivity or high debt from overbuilding housing that few can afford.

这些决议被广泛视为越南自上世纪80年代经济开放以来最重要的改革纲领——如果能得到切实执行的话。批评者则担心，苏林的执政风格更接近专制裙带资本主义，指出他动辄拘押批评者，并且已开始偏袒那些政治关系深厚的大型企业集团——这些企业往往生产力低下，或者因过度开发民众负担不起的住房而背负巨额债务。

With the window of free trade closing under heavy American protectionism and China’s export subsidies, Mr. Lam’s clock is ticking. He said action plans are coming, with deadlines.

在美国强力保护主义和中国出口补贴的挤压下，自由贸易的窗口正在关闭，苏林的时间已然不多。他表示，具体行动计划即将出台，并设有明确期限。

“He’s trying to generate excitement,” said Tuong Vu, the director of the U.S.-Vietnam Research Center at the University of Oregon, “and grab as much power as possible in the process.”

俄勒冈大学美越研究中心主任武祥（音）说，“他试图激发热情，并在这一过程中尽量多攫取权力。”

Full of Surprises

充满意外

Who is Mr. Lam, what does he really want, and what will he do if he does not get it?

苏林究竟是何许人？他的真实目标是什么？若目标受阻，又会做什么？

Vietnamese leaders, since Ho Chi Minh’s campaign for independence in the 1940s, almost never agree to unscripted media interviews. This article is based on conversations with dozens of officials, business executives and diplomats, along with a review of Mr. Lam’s writing and speeches. Many who have experience with Mr. Lam requested anonymity to speak freely about a leader whose career was shaped by policing dissent, and he has not responded to repeated requests for an interview with The New York Times.

自20世纪40年代胡志明发动争取独立的运动以来，越南领导人几乎从不接受无预定提纲的媒体采访。本文基于与数十名官员、企业高管及外交官的对话，并查阅了苏林的著作与讲话。许多与苏林打过交道的人士要求匿名，以便能够坦率谈论这位职业生涯深受镇压异见影响的领导人；他本人未回应《纽约时报》多次提出的采访请求。

Mr. Lam is at this point known for being neither doctrinaire nor charismatic. He is charming in small groups. He is willing to take big risks while keeping his full intentions hidden.

目前的苏林的形象既非教条主义者也非魅力型领袖。他在小团体中颇具亲和力，既敢于承担巨大风险，又善于隐藏全部意图。

He was born in 1957, in Xuan Cau — an ancient riverfront village in Hung Yen Province, southeast of Hanoi — to parents who were Communist revolutionaries. The family was large and poor, living like most in a house with a thatched roof.

1957年，苏林出生于河内东南部兴安省的春桥（音），这是一个古老的河畔村落，他的父母都是共产主义革命者。家中人口众多、生活贫困，和大多数人一样，住在茅草屋顶的房子里。

Neighbors from Mr. Lam’s early years said he could often be found along the village road, paved with slanted bricks that were centuries old, heading to the rice fields to catch and eat crabs, snails and fish as well as rats, a local delicacy.

他幼年时期的邻居们回忆，他小时候常常走在铺着数百年历史斜纹砖的村道上，前往稻田捕捉螃蟹、田螺、鱼和被当地视为美味的田鼠。

State security officials, insisting on anonymity, described his rise as far from inevitable. Through the 1980s and 1990s, they said, Mr. Lam struggled to stand out. His operational skills were weaker than those of accomplished peers. He made up for it by building relationships, especially with superiors, leading to jokes that he spent more time at his bosses’ houses than his own.

要求匿名的国家安全官员透露，苏林的崛起绝非顺理成章。据他们描述，在上世纪80至90年代，他并不出挑，业务能力不如一些出色的同侪，却通过构建人际关系弥补不足，尤其善于与上级来往，以至于有人打趣说，他待在领导家里的时间比在自己家里还多。

He expanded his network in part through political training courses. He earned a Ph.D. in law in Vietnam. He also benefited from the Ministry of Public Security’s near-constant restructuring as Vietnam grappled with rapid growth and the internet.

一定程度上通过政治培训课程，苏林拓展了人际网络。他在越南获得法学博士学位。随着越南在快速增长与互联网浪潮中推进改革，公安部频繁重组，他也从中受益。

His worldliness and taste for the good life, the first thing that Westerners who know him often talk about, developed through work and marriage.

认识他的西方人士首先提及的，往往是其通过工作和婚姻培养出的通达世故与精致生活品味。

In the late 1990s, he divorced his first wife, a woman he knew from home, and married Ngo Phuong Ly, a television producer and painter from a prominent artistic family.

1990年代末，苏林与相识于老家的原配妻子离婚，迎娶出身艺术名门的电视制片人兼画家吴芳璃。

In 2008, Mr. Lam was one of 11 deputy directors of General Department I, code-named A11 — a critical unit for national security. His boss was just a year older, considered operationally superior. And the party then had a two-child limit while Mr. Lam had four: a son and daughter with his first wife and two more daughters with his second.

2008年，苏林是第一总局（代号A11）的11名副局长之一，这是国家安全的一个要害部门。他的上司仅比他年长一岁，被认为业务能力更胜一筹。当时越共实行二孩政策，而苏林已有四个孩子：与前妻育有一子一女，与现任妻子又育有两名女儿。

During this period, he often went alone to the National Academy of Music’s concert hall to listen to student performances. His work with A11 also brought him into frequent contact with foreign officials, and in August 2010, he managed to become a deputy minister of public security with a portfolio that included joining senior leaders on trips overseas.

这一时期，他常独自前往国立音乐学院音乐厅欣赏学生演出。A11的工作也使他频繁接触外国官员。2010年8月，他成功晋升为公安部副部长，职责包括随高层领导出访海外。

Current and former diplomats described their discussions with Mr. Lam in these years as wide-ranging. Understanding more English than he speaks, Mr. Lam was mild-mannered — when pushed, he often avoided a curt no, hinting at maybe with an “mmm, mmm.” He also signaled that Vietnam should be open to the world, and especially to the United States.

现任与前任外交官回忆，与苏林在那些年的交流话题十分广泛。他的英语理解能力优于口语表达，性情温和——在被逼问时，往往不直接拒绝，而是用“嗯，嗯”暗示可能性。他也多次传递出越南应向世界开放、尤其应对美国开放的信息。

Tom Vallely, the former director of the Vietnam Program at the Harvard Institute for International Development, said Mr. Lam made sure that the 2017 Ken Burns documentary series about the Vietnam War could be seen within Vietnam, without censorship.

哈佛国际发展研究所越南项目前主任汤姆·瓦莱利说，正是在苏林的推动下，2017年肯·伯恩斯制作的越战纪录片系列得以在越南未经删减播出。

Ted Osius, the U.S. ambassador to Vietnam from 2014 to 2017, recalled being surprised when Mr. Lam brought up trade in their first meeting in Hanoi, and in many that followed.

2014年至2017年担任美国驻越大使的泰德·奥修斯回忆，首次在河内会面时，苏林主动提及贸易议题，让他颇感意外，之后的多次会面亦然。

“To Lam was way more than a cop,” said Mr. Osius, who now does business and teaches in Ho Chi Minh City.

“苏林远不止是个警察，”如今在胡志明市经商、任教的奥修斯说。

Mr. Lam was a disciple of then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, a southerner who had ushered Vietnam into the World Trade Organization in 2006. He and Mr. Lam pushed for President Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership — a free trade deal, rejected by President Trump in 2017, that had been designed to help secure the United States’ place in the region.

苏林是时任总理阮晋勇的门生。阮晋勇是南方人，曾在2006年推动越南加入世界贸易组织。他与苏林一道，支持美国总统奥巴马提出的《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》——这项自由贸易协议旨在巩固美国在该地区的地位，后来在2017年被特朗普总统否决。

Mr. Lam also loved discussing history. He referred often to the Vietnamese generals who in the years 938, 981 and 1288 resisted China and Mongolia’s attempts to dominate Vietnam with a covert strategy of drawing enemies in, then defeating them with iron-tipped stakes in the Bach Dang River, east of Hanoi.

苏林也热衷探讨历史。他常提及公元938年、981年和1288年越南将领抵抗中国和蒙古统治的隐秘策略：诱敌深入，然后在河内以东的白藤江用铁尖木桩击败敌军。

The giant spears were hidden by the high tide. When the water receded, China’s heavy ships self-impaled and sank.

巨型矛桩借涨潮隐匿，待潮水退去，中国的重型船只便自撞沉没。

“To Lam was very aware of this idea,” Mr. Osius said. “Use the weight of your enemies against them.”

奥修斯说，“苏林深谙此道，善于借敌之力反制其身。”

The ‘Blazing Furnace’

“熔炉”淬炼

In 2016, Mr. Lam took over the Ministry of Public Security in a party reshuffle. Mr. Dung resigned — his attempt to stay on as prime minister had failed. So Mr. Lam became the top cop for Nguyen Phu Trong, a strict Marxist-Leninist, who was re-elected as general secretary.

2016年，在越共党内的人事调整中，阮晋勇此前试图留任总理的努力失败后辞职。自此，苏林成为阮富仲手下的最高警务官员。阮富仲是一位作风强硬的马列主义者，在此次调整中连任总书记。

Mr. Trong’s “blazing furnace” anti-corruption drive brought them closer together.

阮富仲发起的“熔炉”反腐运动，让两人关系日益密切。

In 2017, according to government officials, Mr. Lam directed a high-risk operation to apprehend Trinh Xuan Thanh, a former official accused of embezzling from a state-owned company. Mr. Thanh had fled to Germany and sought asylum. German prosecutors said Mr. Thanh was kidnapped in Berlin by Vietnamese agents and smuggled through Slovakia — where Mr. Lam was at the time.

据越南政府官员透露，2017年，苏林指挥了一场高风险行动，抓捕被控侵吞国企资产的前官员郑春成。郑春成当时逃往德国寻求庇护。德国检方称，郑春成在柏林遭越南特工绑架，并经斯洛伐克偷运出境——而苏林当时正在斯洛伐克。

The case — yielding a life sentence for Mr. Thanh — significantly helped Mr. Lam win Mr. Trong’s trust. Party officials said he gave Mr. Lam the “sword of anti-corruption.” And like the generals of old, he let his most prominent victims fall onto it with their overconfidence.

最终郑春成被判处无期徒刑，此案也极大地帮助苏林赢得了阮富仲的信任。越共党内官员称，总书记将“反腐利剑”交到了苏林手中。如同昔日的将帅一般，他让那些过于自负的显赫者纷纷倒在这柄利剑之下。

They were Communists caught up in a capitalist boom. With Vietnam’s rapid growth, it was an open secret that many officials had their hands in the honey pot of business deals.

他们是陷入资本主义繁荣浪潮中的共产党员。随着越南经济的快速增长，许多官员在商业交易中牟取私利已成为公开的秘密。

Mr. Lam faced a scandal of his own in 2021, when a YouTube video showed him in London with other officials, being fed hunks of meat by a celebrity chef known as Salt Bae, who is famous for serving up steaks wrapped in edible, 24-carat gold leaf.

2021年，苏林本人也卷入一场丑闻。当时一段YouTube视频显示他在伦敦与其他官员共进晚餐，由知名主厨“撒盐哥”(Salt Bae)现场喂食大块牛肉——这位主厨以用24K可食用金箔包裹牛排闻名。

曾任官员的郑春成因涉嫌侵吞国有企业资金，于2018年在河内被判处无期徒刑。

Officials with knowledge of Vietnam’s internal workings said President Nguyen Xuan Phuc wanted him disciplined. Mr. Lam fought back.

知晓越南内部运作的官员透露，越南国家主席阮春福曾要求对其进行纪律处分。苏林予进行了反击。

Mr. Phuc was forced to resign in 2023 amid a cloud of corruption accusations. Mr. Lam went on to strip Mr. Phuc of all party titles.

2023年，阮春福在一片腐败指控的阴云中被迫辞职。苏林随后剥夺了阮春福的所有党内职务。

His humiliation fit a pattern. In early 2024, as Mr. Trong, the party chief, was on his death bed, Mr. Lam’s anti-corruption effort pushed out every other candidate for Vietnam’s top job.

这种羞辱成为常态。2024年初，时任党总书记阮富仲病危之际，苏林通过反腐行动清除了所有其他竞争越南最高职位的候选人。

Mr. Lam became president that May. And when Mr. Trong died two months later, Mr. Lam also became party leader — a dual role, temporary then, now secured for his five-year term.

同年5月，苏林就任国家主席。两个月后阮富仲逝世，苏林同时接任党总书记——这个双重职务最初是临时性的，如今他的五年任期已经确定。

New York and Trump

纽约与特朗普

Foreign affairs was one of Mr. Lam’s early priorities. He paid a state visit to China in August 2024, a pro forma first stop after taking office in Vietnam, and then he went to New York the next month for the United Nations General Assembly.

外交事务是苏林上任初期的工作重点之一。2024年8月，他对中国进行了国事访问，这是越南领导人就职后惯例的首站行程；次月，他又赴纽约出席联合国大会。

His schedule there included a visit to Columbia University to speak and take questions — a rarity for any leader of a one-party state. And before taking the stage at Low Memorial Library, he met privately with scholars and executives in engineering and business. They had been pulled together by Lien-Hang Nguyen, a historian at Columbia, and Mr. Vallely, a Vietnam War veteran and postwar reconciliation advocate, who had moved from Harvard to Columbia.

他在纽约的日程安排包括前往哥伦比亚大学发表演讲并接受提问——这对任何一党制国家的领导人来说都是罕见的。在劳纪念图书馆登台演讲之前，他还与工程学界及商界学者高管举行了非公开会晤。这场会晤由哥伦比亚大学历史学家阮连项与越战老兵、战后和解倡导者瓦莱利共同促成，后者已从哈佛大学转至哥伦比亚大学任职。

Several people in the room said the vibe was energetic and urgent. They were impressed by Mr. Lam’s passion for development ideas and his push for research to arrive quickly.

在场的一些人说，现场气氛充满活力和紧迫感。苏林对发展理念的热忱以及推动科研快速落地的主张令他们印象深刻。

Mr. Lam’s advisers hoped he would leave the same impression with the man about to become president: Donald Trump. Mr. Lam’s office had requested a meeting before the trip.

苏林的顾问希望他能给即将就任总统的特朗普留下同样的深刻印象。苏林的办公室在访美前就已提出会晤请求。

The day after Mr. Lam’s Columbia appearance, on Sept. 24, Mr. Trump appeared at a signing ceremony involving his son Eric Trump and a Vietnamese developer who paid millions for the rights to build a Trump golf complex in Mr. Lam’s home province.

9月24日，也就是苏林在哥伦比亚出席活动的第二天，特朗普出席了一个签约仪式，他的儿子埃里克·特朗普和一名越南开发商参加了该仪式，该开发商斥资数以百万计的美元，获得在苏林家乡省份建造特朗普高尔夫综合体的开发权。

The president-to-be snubbed Mr. Lam.

当时这位即将上任的总统没给苏林面子。

苏林于2024年在纽约联合国大会上发表演讲。外交事务是苏林上任后优先处理的要务之一。

Tariffs followed in 2025, sky high, then reduced to 20 percent after entreaties from Hanoi. After the White House added levies on furniture, a priority industry for Vietnam, Mr. Lam privately expressed frustration and confusion, according to officials in meetings with him.

接着，在2025年，美国对越南征收的关税一度飙升，后经河内恳求才降至20%。据与苏林会晤的官员透露，当白宫对越南重点产业家具加征关税后，苏林私下表达了沮丧与困惑。

Yet he did not give up. Vietnam was among the first countries to sign up for Mr. Trump’s “Board of Peace.” It has finalized deals to buy C-130 transport planes and Sikorsky helicopters from the United States, according to officials, who said Mr. Lam hopes to announce the purchases at a high-level visit, which Washington has not yet approved.

但他并未放弃。越南成为首批加入特朗普“和平委员会”的国家之一。官员透露，越南已敲定从美国采购C-130运输机和西科斯基直升机的协议，苏林希望能在美方尚未批准的高层访问期间宣布这批采购。

Some of his critics from a Marxist bent worry that Mr. Lam might be Vietnam’s Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformer who takes down the system by upsetting the traditional balance of power, sidling up to Washington and moving too quickly with oligarchs at state-favored companies.

部分持马克思主义立场的批评者担忧，苏林可能成为越南的戈尔巴乔夫——这位改革者通过打破传统权力平衡、亲近华盛顿并与国家青睐的公司寡头过快合作，最终瓦解了体制。

Those hoping for more freedom of expression fear he will be another Xi Jinping, hardening with time into a rigid party autocrat.

期盼言论自由扩大的人士则担忧他将成为另一个习近平——随着时间推移愈发强硬，最终成为一名僵化的党内专制者。

He has already overseen myriad, tough crackdowns — on environmentalists, social media influencers, a journalist who wrote that “a country cannot develop based on fear,” and in 2023 on a Vietnamese activist who spoofed Mr. Lam’s meal of gilded beef by making a video that showed him theatrically sprinkling onions onto a bowl of noodles.

他已经主导了无数次严厉的打击行动——针对环保主义者、社交媒体网红、一名撰文称“一个国家不能在恐惧的基础上发展”的记者，以及2023年一名恶搞苏林食用镀金牛肉的越南活动人士，此人制作视频，戏剧性地将洋葱撒进一碗面，以此作为讽刺。

去年在越南举行的一场特朗普酒店及高尔夫球场开发项目的奠基仪式。

The activist was convicted of producing anti-state propaganda and sentenced to more than five years in prison.

该活动人士因制作反国家宣传物被判处五年以上有期徒刑。

Mr. Lam hometown’s of Xuan Cau stands as a monument to his ambitions and risks. His small family home is now a compound with several expansive buildings behind pale yellow walls, surrounded by new schools, roads, soccer fields and a once-polluted pond that is now clean.

苏林的家乡春桥镇见证了他的抱负与面临的风险。他曾经简朴的故居如今已成占地广阔的建筑群，淡黄色的围墙后面矗立着数栋宏伟建筑，周围是新建的学校、道路、足球场和一个曾经污染严重、如今已恢复清澈的池塘。

Nearby, cranes rise over a huge, residential and commercial development painted in crayon colors with plazas holding mock-ups of Italian statues — a Vietnamese Epcot Center.

不远处，巨型起重机矗立于彩色粉笔画般的住宅商业综合体上空，广场上摆放着意大利雕像的复制品——宛若越南版的未来世界主题公园。

These used to be some of the rice fields where Mr. Lam searched for food.

这里曾经是苏林觅食的稻田。

去年在河内举办的越南建国80周年展览会上，一个展示越共成就的展位。

On a recent visit, the bright lights visible from a new highway prophesied cheer, but up close, hundreds if not thousands of completed luxury villas sat dark and empty.

在最近的一次造访期间，从一条新公路上看到的明亮灯光预示着繁荣，但近看却发现数百甚至上千栋豪华别墅空置着，灯火全无。

All of Vietnam is waiting for Mr. Lam to succeed.

整个越南都在等待苏林的成功。