By Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio
HANOI (Reuters) – Nguyen Phu Trong, the Marxist-Leninist who led Vietnam for more than a decade overseeing rapid economic growth and more recently trod a fine line in elevating ties with both China and the U.S. with his ‘bamboo diplomacy’, has died. He was 80.
For months Trong had appeared frail at public events or missed them outright and on Thursday his duties as party chief were taken over by President To Lam. He died “due to old age and serious illness,” the ruling Communist Party said on Friday.
Trong became the Communist Party’s general secretary in 2011, a position that in one-party authoritarian Vietnam gave him the key levers of power. He also served as Vietnam’s president from 2018 to 2020.
He cultivated an image of moderation but from 2017 unleashed what many saw as a China-style crackdown on corruption, known as “blazing furnace” that in the past year has had a chilling effect on the economy and at times paralysed public administration.
In foreign policy, Trong advocated having “more friends, fewer foes” while being as flexible as bamboo.
That stance culminated in a visit by President Joe Biden to Hanoi last September that saw Vietnam lift the United States to its highest diplomatic status alongside China, Russia, India and South Korea.
Three months later, ties with Beijing – a major Communist economic partner despite recurring tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea – were further boosted when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited.
Vietnam also hosted Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in June and elevated Japan to its highest level of diplomatic status last year.
Trong’s crackdown on corruption has been long and enduring – leading to arrests or forced resignations of senior officials.
“The furnace is heating up, even fresh firewood can be burnt,” Trong said months after he launched his signature policy.
Critics lambasted the clampdown as politically motivated and rights groups also accused Trong of presiding over an intensified muzzling of dissent that has seen activists, journalists and users of social media imprisoned.
But he failed to uproot graft.
In late 2022, the country was shaken by its biggest financial fraud to date with the arrest of real-estate tycoon Truong My Lan and a run on deposits of the bank she controlled. Vietnam’s central bank has had to embark on a massive rescue to avoid wider panic, costing more than $24 billion.
Trong’s crackdown led to the dismissal of two of Vietnam’s presidents in about a year, the last one in March – developments that unnerved foreign investors who worried the anti-graft campaign had gotten out of hand.
HAMMER AND SICKLE
Trong’s rule solidified in his second five-year term and despite his health issues, he secured a rare third term in 2021, with the party waiving a rule restricting the party chief position to two terms.
All in all, he held the party chief position for 13 years, second only to Le Duan, who ruled with an iron fist for 26 years after the death of Vietnam’s founding revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.
Vietnam continued to flourish under Trong, benefiting from the 1986 “Doi Moi” reforms that transformed it from a war-torn agrarian nation into one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Vietnam’s annual GDP growth averaged 5.8% over the last decade and managed decent growth even during the coronavirus pandemic that crushed economies elsewhere.
Born and raised in the suburbs of Hanoi to a farmer couple, Trong was interested in folk literature from a young age, according to a biography. He majored in philology – the study of language and historical texts – at university and one of his first published works was a 1967 review of folk poetry.
Studying for two years in the Soviet Union, he went on to gain a PhD in political science, writing his thesis on the Vietnam Communist Party’s efforts to strengthen its connection with the masses. In 1991, he became editor-in-chief of the party’s Communist Review magazine.
Trong’s image was that of a man who detested excess, lived in modest state-appointed housing and refused expensive Lunar New Year gifts from friends.
Two books – each some 600 pages long and published by the party in 2019 and 2021 respectively, extolled Trong’s virtues – efforts that some critics likened to an attempt at building a cult of personality.
A poem in the first book describes Trong as “a noble man, sent by the spirits to purify the system,” an apparent reference to the corruption crackdown. “Hammer and sickle in hand, he dispels gloom, waiting for the sunshine,” it said.
Trong was married with a son and a daughter. His children, unlike those of other high-ranking officials, are normal public servants, government officials have said.
(Reporting by Phuong Nguyen, Francesco Guarascio, Khanh Vu and James Pearson; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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