3. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Population: 93.45 million
The de facto head of state in Vietnam is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who heads the Politburo, the party’s Secretariat and the Central Military Commission. It is currently headed by Nguyễn Phú Trọng, who is incumbent since January 2011. He was reelected in 2016 by the Communist Party, being the only candidate for the post. Additionally, he is highly conservative and therefore unwilling to abandon Vietnam’s current system of government which grants him absurd amounts of power. Political protesters are clamped down upon by the communist authorities, as shown recently in July when a few dozen people took to the streets in an anti-China rally. And now, let’s see the top two in our list of biggest countries ruled by dictators.
