Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who was seen as the most powerful figure in the country, has died, according to state media, ending more than 13 years of leadership after a reported illness.
The announcement on Friday came a day after the party announced that Trong would hand over power to focus on receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed medical condition.
State media cited the government as saying that Trong died at a military hospital “due to old age and serious illness”.
“There will be a special statement on the organisation of the funeral at the national level,” according to the reports.
His death comes as the country goes through a political transition, with a new president appointed in May following the resignation of his predecessor.
To Lam took over from Vo Van Thuong, who resigned in March over what the party called “violations and shortcomings”, after just a year in the job.
Trong’s responsibilities have been handed to the country’s largely ceremonial president, Lam, a powerful former public security minister long seen as jockeying for the top job.
“The Politburo calls on the entire party, people and army to have absolute trust in the party’s leadership and state management,” it said on Thursday.
The communist administration, which is being completely overhauled, has undergone a series of upheavals in recent months, with ministers, business leaders and two presidents all falling from grace as part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign.
Vietnam’s leadership structure gives the party’s general secretary the most powerful position.
In recent weeks, Trong’s poor health prompted widespread speculation that he would not be able to stay in power until the 2026 party congress, which is expected to appoint a successor.
Trong enjoyed remarkable longevity in office since 2011, during a mandate that rights groups say has coincided with increasing authoritarianism.
Known for being a technocrat and on good terms with China, he structured the party around himself, benefitting from a decade of economic growth that strengthened his legitimacy.
‘Bamboo diplomacy’
Born in 1944 in Hanoi, Trong was a Marxist-Leninist ideologue who earned a degree in philosophy before becoming a member of the Communist Party at the age of 22.
Trong viewed corruption as the single gravest threat in maintaining the party’s legitimacy.
“A country without discipline would be chaotic and unstable,” Trong said in 2016 after being reelected to the party’s helm.
He launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign known as the “blazing furnace” that singed both business and political elites. Since 2016, thousands of party officials have been disciplined. They included former presidents Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vo Van Thuong and the former head of parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue. In all, eight members of the powerful Politburo were ousted on corruption allegations, compared to none between 1986 and 2016.
Trong studied in the Soviet Union from 1981 to 1983, and there was speculation that under his leadership, Vietnam would move closer to Russia and China.
However, the Southeast Asian nation followed a pragmatic policy of “bamboo diplomacy,” a phrase he coined that referred to the plant’s flexibility, bending but not breaking in the shifting headwinds of geopolitics.
Vietnam maintained its traditional ties with its much larger neighbour, China, dispute differences over sovereignty in the South China Sea. But it also drew closer to the United States, elevating its ties with its former Vietnam War foe to its highest diplomatic status, a comprehensive strategic partnership.
On Friday, China’s Communist Party sent a message of condolence to Vietnam over Trong’s passing, Chinese state television CCTV reported.
Trong’s legacy is mixed, with the unintended consequence of the anti-graft campaign being an erosion of institutions within the Communist Party, said Nguyen Khac Giang, a visiting fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. The party institutions were the bedrock ensuring that a balance of power remained among its different factions, he said.
“Vietnam has become more and more like China, where institutions and norms doesn’t really matter as much as personal power,” Giang said.
Rumors about his health have swirled in Vietnamese politics since he was first hospitalised in 2019, and more recently when he appeared extremely frail while meeting visiting Russian President Vladmir Putin.
Trong’ death leaves behind a yawning political vacuum in Vietnam.
Although Lam is widely viewed as the likely next party chief, Giang predicted “a very uncertain time” in Vietnamese politics because the norms and institutions governing the country are “very shaky.”
“Now it isn’t only about the rules or norms, but it is also about who holds the most power,” Giang said.
