HANOI, Vietnam — Nguyen Phu Trong, basic secretary of Vietnam’s ruling Communist Get together and the nation’s strongest politician, has died following months of sick well being, official media mentioned Friday. He was 80.
“Common Secretary of the Central Committee of the Get together Nguyen Phu Trong handed away at 13:38 on July 19, 2024, on the 108 Central Navy Hospital because of previous age and critical sickness,” the Nhan Dan newspaper mentioned.
Official media mentioned a state funeral can be held.
Trong had dominated Vietnamese politics since 2011, when he was elected get together chief. Throughout his tenure, he labored to consolidate the Communist Get together’s energy in Vietnam’s single-party political system. Within the decade earlier than he took the highest position in Vietnamese politics, the steadiness of energy had shifted extra towards the governmental wing led by then-Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Born in 1944 in Hanoi, Trong was a Marxist-Leninist ideologue who earned a level in philosophy earlier than changing into a member of the Communist Get together on the age of twenty-two. He considered corruption as the one gravest risk in sustaining the get together’s legitimacy.
“A rustic with out self-discipline can be chaotic and unstable,” Trong mentioned in 2016 after being reelected to the get together’s helm. Formally, Vietnam has no high chief, however the Communist Get together chief is historically seen as essentially the most highly effective.
He launched a sweeping anti-corruption marketing campaign often called the “blazing furnace” that singed each enterprise and political elites. Since 2016, 1000’s of get together officers have been disciplined. They included former presidents Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vo Van Thuong and the previous head of parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue. In all, eight members of the highly effective Politburo have been ousted on corruption allegations, in comparison with none between 1986 and 2016.
Trong studied within the Soviet Union from 1981 to 1983, and there was hypothesis that underneath his management, Vietnam would transfer nearer to Russia and China. Nonetheless, the Southeast Asian nation adopted a realistic coverage of “bamboo diplomacy,” a phrase he coined that referred to the plant’s flexibility, bending however not breaking within the shifting headwinds of geopolitics.
Vietnam maintained its conventional ties with its a lot bigger neighbor, China, dispute variations over sovereignty within the South China Sea. Nevertheless it additionally drew nearer to the US, elevating its ties with its former Vietnam Warfare foe to its highest diplomatic standing, a complete strategic partnership.
Trong’s legacy is combined, with the unintended consequence of the anti-graft marketing campaign being an erosion of establishments throughout the Communist Get together, mentioned Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow within the Vietnam Research Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. The get together establishments have been the bedrock making certain {that a} steadiness of energy remained amongst its totally different factions, he mentioned.
“Vietnam has turn into an increasing number of like China, the place establishments and norms doesn’t actually matter as a lot as private energy,” Giang mentioned.
Vietanamese President To Lam was appointed the get together caretaker on July 18 whereas Trong obtained therapy for his sick well being. As Vietnam’s high safety official, Lam had led the anti-graft marketing campaign till changing into president in Might, when his predecessor resigned after being caught up in it.
The get together’s Politburo requested Lam to “preside over the work of the Get together Central Committee, the Politburo, and the Secretariat,” in line with an announcement from its central workplace which was the primary official affirmation of Trong’s poor well being.
Rumors about his well being have swirled in Vietnamese politics since he was first hospitalized in 2019, and extra lately when he appeared extraordinarily frail whereas assembly visiting Russian President Vladmir Putin.
Trong’ loss of life leaves behind a yawning political vacuum in Vietnam. Though Lam is broadly considered because the seemingly subsequent get together chief, Giang predicted “a really unsure time” in Vietnamese politics as a result of the norms and establishments governing the nation are “very shaky.”
“Now it isn’t solely concerning the guidelines or norms, however additionally it is about who holds essentially the most energy,” Giang mentioned.