(Bloomberg) -- Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s Communist Party chief and the country’s most powerful official, has died, according to a government statement.
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Trong, 80, was the general secretary of the party from 2011 until his death. He also served as the nation’s president from 2018 to 2021.
Trong died after a period of illness at 1:38 p.m. Friday at a military hospital in Hanoi, the statement said. The leader died “due to old age and serious illness, despite getting dedicated treatment” from his doctors and the nation’s leading medical experts, the government said.
The government canceled a series of music performances across the country, according to local media reports. The government’s website was turned into a shade of grey after the announcement of Trong’s death.
Vietnamese young people, online vendors and officials flooded Facebook pages with patriotic photos, poetry and comments of respect for Trong, an unusual showing of social media support for a leader in the one-party system.
Arguably the country’s most influential leader since Ho Chi Minh, Trong oversaw a vast economic expansion including deeper ties with both China and a former foe, the US. Under his watch, Vietnam unleashed a sweeping campaign to root out corruption that has ensnared hundreds of officials and business leaders.
The politburo on Thursday tapped President To Lam to become the interim leader due to Trong’s health emergency.
Trong was elected as general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam in 2011 and reelected to the position in 2016 and 2021. He also become president in 2018, a break from party tradition following the death of then-President Tran Dai Quang. Trong relinquished the presidency in 2021, but his election that year to a rare third term as general secretary made him the longest-serving party leader since Le Duan, who held the post from 1960 until his death in 1986.
Trong headed the nation’s central steering committee to tackle corruption since 2013. In recent years, he likened his anti-graft campaign to a “blazing furnace,” one that since at least 2021 has caught scores of government officials and business executives alike in its flames.
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The crackdown has been portrayed as part of Vietnam’s attempts to bolster its appeal as a destination for foreign investment in the midst of a heated competition between the US and China, and to ensure the party’s legitimacy in the face of wide-ranging scandals. However, it also led to widespread fear among bureaucrats, causing them to foot-drag on decision-making and approval of legal documents needed for new development and other business-related activities.
“Nguyen Phu Trong is undoubtedly the most influential Vietnamese politician of the 21st century,” Linh Nguyen, lead analyst for Vietnam at Control Risks. “He leaves a legacy of a party’s unquestioned power fully restored and an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign that has cracked down hundreds corrupted senior politicians.”
Trong was a strong proponent of opening the once-isolated nation to foreign investment. Vietnam transformed into one of the most trade-dependent economies in the world with the signing of numerous free-trade agreements. As of end 2023, the value of Vietnam’s exports roughly equaled the size of its economy, with former foe US now its largest export market.
In 2015, Trong became the first party chief to visit the US when he met former President Barack Obama at the White House. On that occasion, Obama said the “difficult history” between the US and Vietnam was being replaced by a relationship based on mutual economic and security interests in a region that was growing wary of China’s rise. Trong said the US and Vietnam had managed to “rise above the past” to become friends.
US President Joe Biden echoed those sentiments on Friday, saying in a statement “the people of Vietnam and the United States – and people across the Indo-Pacific region – enjoy greater security and opportunity today because of the friendship between our two countries,” calling his 2015 visit “historic.”
The Communist Party of China called Trong “a close comrade and sincere friend,” China’s state media Xinhua reported. Trong and Chinese President Xi Jinping “vigorously promoted the continuous development of China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. The CPC, the Chinese government and the Chinese people will always miss Trong.”
Possible Successors
The selection of a leader is a highly secretive process and analysts expect the vacancy at the top could spark fierce competition within the politburo and the central executive committee.
Lam is in a strong position to become the next party chief, but it’s not guaranteed. The former security minister and Trong’s long-time anti-corruption crusader helped lift Vietnam’s ranking in Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index to 83 last year from 113 in 2016.
Trong was born in Hanoi on April 14, 1944. His official biography says he came from a “poor peasant” family, according to state-owned Vietnam News.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in philology, the study of language and literature, at Vietnam National University in 1967, according to the government’s website. He had been interested in folk literature from a young age, according to a biography posted to the website of the university, which also displayed one of his first published works, a 1967 review of folk poetry, Reuters reported in 2021.
Health Concerns
Trong defended his Ph.D. thesis at the Party Building Department of the Academy of Social Sciences of the former Soviet Union in 1983. He took a postgraduate course in economics and politics at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics from 1973 to 1976.
With his prior experience as Hanoi’s party secretary and chairman of the National Assembly, Trong was chosen as a compromise candidate for the general secretary position in 2011, said Le Hong Hiep, a former foreign ministry official who is now a senior fellow at the Vietnam Studies Program of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
During a 2016 power struggle with Nguyen Tan Dung, Trong outmaneuvered the then prime minister to capture his second term as party chief, Hiep said. “Beneath his grandfatherly appearance, Trong proved to be a determined and skilled politician.”
In 2021, he was chosen for a third term as general secretary reportedly because the party could not reach a consensus on his successor.
Trong’s waning health was the topic of speculation for years. He appeared concerned about taking on the presidency in 2018, citing his “worrisome” old age and weakening health during an acceptance speech to the National Assembly.
After being reelected party chief in 2021, he also said he would have preferred to retire because “I’m old and not in good health.” At the time, he failed to get a preferred candidate to replace him during the party reshuffle, forcing him to stay on as party chief.
He was hospitalized early January this year over an unspecified illness.
--With assistance from Cecilia Yap, Philip J. Heijmans, Linh Vu Nguyen, Michelle Jamrisko and Ramsey Al-Rikabi.
(Updates with Facebook comments in the 5th paragraph and China response in the 15th paragraph.)
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