The 12th Politburo, formally the Political Bureau of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV, Vietnamese: Bộ Chính trị Ban Chấp hành trung ương Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam Khoá XII), was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee (CC) on 27 January 2016 during the 12th National Congress to serve for a five-year electoral term. The Politburo is a central leading organ of the CPV Central Committee tasked with directing the general orientation of the party and state. In this sense, it functions as the highest political organ of the CPV when the Party's National Congress and the Central Committee are adjourned. Since Vietnam is a communist state that bases its governance system on the principle that "the Party leads and the State manages", the Politburo also function as the highest decision-making institution in Vietnam. The Politburo convenes meetings several times a month to discuss and decide policy, and the Secretariat, another central leading organ, ensures that said policies are executed by the relevant institution in question, such as the National Assembly of Vietnam if the policy concerns law-making, or the Party's Central Organisation Commission if it concerns cadre policy. The total number of meetings the 12th Politburo convened has not been publicly disclosed to the media. Some have been publicly reported, however, and are listed below (see "Convocations" section).
The 12th National Congress adopted a resolution that stated the CPV needed to establish a streamlined, efficient political system and combat corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. Shortly after his re-election to the Politburo and as General Secretary of the Central Committee on 27 January 2016, Nguyễn Phú Trọng ramped up his anti-corruption campaign. Đinh La Thăng was removed from the Politburo in May 2017 by the 12th CC's 5th Plenary Session when the 12th Central Inspection Commission started investigating him for mismanaging the state-owned enterprise PetroVietnam, resulting in a loss of 900 billion Vietnamese dongs (around 40 million United States dollars); he was arrested in December 2017 and sentenced to thirteen years in prison in January 2018. In tandem with the anti-corruption drive, Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc began to streamline the government by cutting the number of deputy prime ministers from five to four and ministries from 26 to 22. Institutionally, the campaign was strengthened by appointing six members of the 12th Politburo to serve in the Central Steering Committee on Anti-corruption, providing the Central Inspection Commission with the ability to audit and supervise personnel property declarations under the Politburo and Secretariat's management, and seven central inspection teams were established to investigate serious corruption cases that drew public attention. This campaign developed alongside a campaign to strengthen party morality and Marxist–Leninist ideology and to combat perceived ideological evils such as liberal democratic values, self-evolution and self-transformation.
