The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) on Friday expressed its condolences after Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the country’s most powerful politician, died at the age of 80.
Taiwan “pays tribute to [Trong’s] proactive leadership in developing Vietnam’s economy and society, as well as his dedication to enhancing regional prosperity and peace,” the ministry said in a news release, extending its sympathies to his family.
Taiwan would “continue to work with the people and government of Vietnam to further deepen the cooperation and friendship between the two countries,” it said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Trong died following months of ill health and a state funeral would be held, state media said.
“General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party Nguyen Phu Trong passed away at 13:38 on July 19, 2024, at the 108 Central Military Hospital due to old age and serious illness,” the Nhan Dan newspaper said.
Trong had dominated Vietnamese politics since 2011, when he was elected party chief. During his tenure, he worked to consolidate the Communist Party’s power in Vietnam’s single-party political system.
In the decade before he took the top role in Vietnamese politics, the balance of power had shifted more toward the governmental wing led by then-Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
Born in 1944 in Hanoi, Trong was a Marxist-Leninist ideologue who earned a degree in philosophy before becoming a member of the Vietnamese Communist Party at the age of 22. He 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 re-elected to the party’s helm.
Officially, Vietnam has no top leader, but the Communist Party chief is traditionally seen as the most powerful.
Trong launched a sweeping anti-corruption campaign known as the “blazing furnace” that targeted business and political elites. Since 2016, thousands of party officials have been disciplined. They included former Vietnamese presidents Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vo Van Thuong and the former Vietnamese National Assembly chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
In all, eight members of the powerful Politburo were ousted on corruption allegations, while none were between 1986 and 2016.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “saddened” by Trong’s death and called him “a pivotal figure in Vietnam’s recent history,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.
Guterres said that during Trong’s tenure as president and Communist Party chief, “Vietnam continued its remarkable development journey to emerge as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and an important partner for the United Nations,” the spokesman said.
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.
Vietnamese President To Lam was appointed the party caretaker on Thursday while Trong received treatment for his ill health and is widely viewed as most likely to become party chief.
SEA WARNING LIKELY: The storm, named Gaemi, could become a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, with the Taipei City Government preparing for flooding A tropical depression east of the Philippines developed into a tropical storm named Gaemi at 2pm yesterday, and was moving toward eastern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Gaemi could begin to affect Taiwan proper on Tuesday, lasting until Friday, and could develop into a moderate typhoon on Wednesday or Thursday, it said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued as early as Tuesday morning, it added. Gaemi, the third tropical storm in the Pacific Ocean this typhoon season, is projected to begin moving northwest today, and be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday, the agency said. Today, there would likely
CHIPS AND DEFENSE: Trump said the US had lost its chip business and Taipei should pay it for defense, and added that ‘we’re no different than an insurance company’ Taiwan-US relations are solid, and both sides are in agreement that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region are everyone’s concern, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday following comments by former US president Donald Trump that Taiwan “should pay” for US defense. Taiwan is thankful to the US for supporting Taiwan’s bid to participate in international organizations, Cho told a news conference in Taipei. “I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100 percent of our chip business,” Trump told Bloomberg on June 25 in an interview that was published on Tuesday. “I think
SHOW OF SUPPORT: Taiwan has been one of the largest buyers of US defense equipment, supporting American businesses and jobs, US lawmakers said Taiwan has been paying for its own defense, a US Department of State official said on Wednesday, adding that purchases of military equipment are important to the US economy and for ensuring regional security. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked at a news conference about comments by former US president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s US presidential election, who said during an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek that Taiwan should pay Washington for its defense needs. “The purchases that they [Taiwan] have made not only are important, we believe, to regional security, but are important to the United States economy,”
Hsu Wen-erh (許汶而) on Friday became the first Taiwanese to swim solo across the English Channel, saying she was very happy to bring Taiwan to the world. Hsu completed the challenge in 12 hours, 17 minutes and eight seconds, after swimming across the Strait of Gibraltar in October last year. She said she had planned to swim the English Channel in August next year, but seized the opportunity when a vacancy became available on the waiting list. She went to the UK in May to train for a test that involves swimming for six hours at 16°C, which people who want to swim