Vietnam Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong passes away

The Professional Council for Health Protection of Central Officials on Friday said Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong passed away following a period of illness, despite the care and treatment by the Party, the state, doctors, leading health experts and his family.

Vietnam’s Party Central Committee, National Assemby, president, government and Fatherland Front Central Committee will issue a special notice on his state funeral.

Vietnam’s General Party Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi, March 2019. Photo by AFP

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, 80, was born in Dong Hoi Commune, Dong Anh District of Hanoi. He was a professor and PhD holder in Political Science (specializing in Party building), with a bachelor’s degree in Literature.

He served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party from the 11th to the 13th terms, a member of the Politburo from the 8th to the 13th terms, Standing Member of the Politburo from August 1999 to April 2001, a member of the Party Central Committee from the 7th to the 13th terms, State President from October 2018 to April 2021, Chairman of the National Assembly from the 11th to the 12th terms, and a National Assembly deputy from the 11th to the 15th terms.

His political career started at the Communist Review magazine, where he worked in different positions, from a staff member in the Documentation Desk, an editorial staff member, deputy head and later head of the Party Building Department, member of the Editorial Board, deputy editor-in-chief, and then editor-in-chief.

He was a graduate student at the Political Economy Department of Nguyen Ai Quoc High-Level Party School, which is now the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics. He studied Russian language at the school, then was an intern and defended his PhD thesis at the Party Building Department of the Academy of Social Sciences of the Soviet Union.

In August 1996, he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee, concurrently Head of the University Party Affairs Committee, directly in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Hanoi Party Committee. He was then in charge of the Party’s ideological, cultural, and scientific-educational work, before serving as Vice Chairman and later Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council.

He was Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee for six years from January 2000 to June 2006, and then Chairman of the National Assembly from June 2006 to July 2011.

At the first meeting of the 11th Party Central Committee in January 2011, he was elected General Secretary for the first time. He was re-elected General Secretary of the committee’s 12th term in January 2016 and the 13th term in January 2021.