Vietnam unanimously elected Communist Party General Secretary To Lam as president for a five-year term, consolidating his control over both the party and the state.
The move departs from Vietnam’s tradition of shared leadership, in which the jobs have typically been held by different people, and echoes power structures in China under Xi Jinping and neighboring Laos.
It has been widely expected since Lam’s reelection as Communist Party head in January, when observers noted that his consolidation of party authority positioned him to assume the presidency as well.
Except that’s where it stops (in both Vietnam and China). One-party rule is only slightly more democratic than a dictatorship.
You make it sound like democracy is a linear phenomena. There are likely tradeoffs
In ancient Greece there were no parties and it was the first democracy.