LONDON — Communist party congresses are generally tedious events, and the 11th Congress of the Vietnamese Communist Party (Jan. 12-17) was no exception. The changes in personnel at the top were decided by the elite inner circle of the party long before the congress opened, and the rhetoric was in the same wooden language that communists always use.

The nation must "renew the growth model and restructure the economy to speed up industrialization and modernization with fast and sustainable development," outgoing party leader Nong Duc Manh told the congress on opening day. "The strategy is to strive toward 2020 so that our country will basically become an industrialized nation." Novel approach, isn't it?

The talk was all about fighting inflation and corruption (there's quite a lot of both those things in Vietnam), while maintaining a high economic growth rate (6.8 percent last year). Ordinary people are struggling to maintain their standard of living (although they are far better off than they were 20 to 40 years ago), and resent being bossed around by the communist elite — but they feel helpless to do anything about it.