Nguyen Phu Trong steps back from Vietnam leadership because of health

State media reported that Trong died at a military hospital of “old age and serious illness.”

To Lam, Vietnam’s longtime minister of public security who was recently installed as president, is seen as a likely candidate to replace Trong as party secretary, the most influential position in the Vietnamese system. On Thursday, leaders of the Politburo announced that Lam would temporarily take over Trong’s duties.

“The Politburo calls on the entire Party, the entire people and the entire army to have absolute confidence in the leadership of the Party,” the Politburo said in an announcement printed across state-owned news agencies.

Trong presided over Vietnam during a period of dramatic transformation. Widely regarded as a party hard-liner, he opened the country up to more investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries while tightening the party’s grip over domestic instability and criticism.

Here’s what to know about Trong’s legacy and what his death means for Vietnam, an increasingly vital swing state in the competition among the United States, Russia and China.

Vietnam’s top leadership consists of four people who govern by consensus — the general secretary of the Communist Party, the president, the prime minister and the chairman of the National Assembly. But the party secretary is widely regarded as preeminent.

When President Biden visited Hanoi last September to upgrade relations between the United States and Vietnam, he had a one-on-one meeting with Trong, a rare engagement for Biden with a foreign leader who is not a head of state or government.

Trong was educated in the former Soviet Union and ascended to the party’s top position in 2011. He was reelected in 2016, and in 2021 began serving an unprecedented third term as party secretary.

Vietnam experienced a window of political liberalization in the early 2000s, but this was largely reversed under Trong’s tenure, analysts say. The party under Trong consolidated and expanded its powers, including by pressuring big tech companies such as Meta to scrub criticism of party leaders from its platforms, implementing legislation to curb free speech and arresting droves of political opponents and critics. According to the 88 Project, a watchdog group focused on Vietnam, the government has imprisoned nearly 200 people for political reasons, including environmental activists, journalists and trade unionists.

In recent years, Trong became identified with his signature anti-graft effort, which led to the resignation of high-ranking party officials, including two state presidents, multiple provincial leaders and several dozen other members of the party’s Central Committee. The campaign, called a “blazing furnace” in Vietnamese, gave rise to an unusual period of political instability in the country.

The campaign “was meant to repair the system but in fact has exposed the cancer of corruption and political decay of the regime,” said Nguyen Thanh Giang, a Vietnamese analyst at the Singapore-based ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.

Vietnam under Trong developed warmer relations with its former foe, the United States. Washington has sought a closer security relationship with Vietnam to serve as a bulwark against China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. Under pressure to diversify supply chains away from China, U.S. companies have also increasingly turned to Vietnam as a nearby alternative.

Vietnam has sought to use Washington as a counterweight to Beijing, especially in the face of increased Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, which is claimed in part by Vietnam.

But Vietnam has also maintained strong relations with China and Russia. Trong received both Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hanoi in recent months.

Trong’s death creates a power vacuum within the party that could exacerbate infighting that has already taken hold because of the anti-corruption investigations, analysts suggest.

Many expect Lam to emerge as Trong’s eventual successor. Formerly the country’s top cop, Lam was elevated to the role of president in May, replacing two others who were ousted in quick succession. Human rights groups blame Lam for Vietnam’s crackdown on civil society and fear that his ascent could lead to more arrests of civil society leaders.

“Over the coming years, we can expect that the brutal repression Lam meted out as top cop will intensify,” said Ben Swanton, co-director of the 88 Project.