Members of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam

On 27 January 2016, the 12th National Congress elected 180 individuals to serve as members of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) for the electoral term 2016–2021. The Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution in the CPV and Vietnam when the Party's National Congress and the Politburo are adjourned. In between congresses, the Central Committee is responsible for organising and directing the implementation of the Party's Political Platform, Charter, and resolutions adopted at the National Congress. Furthermore, it adopts guidelines and policies in all relevant fields, domestic or foreign. In addition, the sitting Central Committee is responsible for convening the next National Congress. Members of the Central Committee have the right to elect and remove the General Secretary of the Central Committee as well as members of the Politburo, the Secretariat and the Central Inspection Commission (CIC). When the Central Committee is not in session, it delegates its powers to these three elected organs which then report on their activities the next time the Central Committee convenes for a meeting. Central Committee members are responsible to and report on their work to the Central Committee.

81 members had served in the 11th Central Committee (11th CC). Moreover, another 18 members had served as alternates of the 11th CC. Of these 99 members, seven had served in the 11th Politburo. The remaining 81 members were newcomers. Of the 180 members, 17 were women. Upon their election, 12 members were 61 years or older, 142 members were in the age group 51–60 and seven were in the age group 46–49. 19 members were 45 years of age or younger, of which Nguyễn Xuân Anh and Nguyen Thanh Nghi were the youngest. Hà Tĩnh province had the highest provincial representation on the Central Committee with its sixteen members. The Ministry of Defence had twenty representatives and the Ministry of Public Security had five. Twelve members had work experience in the Vietnam People's Public Security police force.

The 12th National Congress adopted a resolution that stated the CPV needed to combat political corruption resolutely. Shortly after his re-election as General Secretary on 27 January 2016, Nguyễn Phú Trọng ramped up his anti-corruption campaign. As a result, five members were removed from the Central Committee and expelled from the CPV; 12th Politburo member Đinh La Thăng, Tất Thành Cang, Nguyễn Xuân Anh, Trương Minh Tuấn and Nguyễn Đức Chung. The two most notable cases were those of Đinh La Thăng and Nguyễn Xuân Anh. Đinh La Thăng was accused of 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. Nguyễn Xuân Anh was accused of violating democratic centralism and of behaving in a corrupt way. This last case got more attention since Nguyễn Xuân Anh was the son of Nguyễn Văn Chi, the CIC Chairman of the 10th and 11th terms. Four officials received disciplinary warnings from the 12th CC and the 12th CIC: Lê Viết Chữ and Trần Quốc Cường as well as Politburo members Nguyễn Văn Bình and Hoàng Trung Hải. Triệu Tài Vinh, on the other hand, was recommended a disciplinary punishment by the 41st Session of the CIC and received a reprimand by the 12th Politburo in January 2020.

The 13th National Congress re-elected 103 members to serve in the 13th Central Committee, which began in 2021. Of these, ten were given age exemptions. Party regulation states that one needs to be 60 years or younger to be re-elected to the Central Committee, and Võ Văn Dũng, Phan Văn Giang, Lê Minh Trí and Nguyễn Chí Dũng were given exemptions from this rule. Moreover, another rule states that members of the Politburo have to be 65 years or younger to be re-elected, but the 13th National Congress gave age exemptions to Nguyễn Phú Trọng (77 years of age) and Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (67 years of age).