Nguyen Phu Trong, Powerful Vietnamese Leader, Is Dead at 80 - The New York Times

Known for his “blazing furnace” anticorruption campaign, Mr. Trong consolidated power in one of the world’s few remaining Communist dictatorships. By Sui-Lee Wee Nguyen Phu Trong, the hard-line general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party who presided over his country’s economic and geopolitical transformation, and reshaped its leadership with his “blazing furnace” anticorruption campaign, died on Friday at a hospital in Hanoi. He was 80. His death was announced by the official Nhan Dan newspaper, which said that Mr. Trong had died of “old age” and an unspecified serious illness. Speculation had swirled in January about Mr. Trong’s health after he skipped meetings with several foreign leaders. The seriousness of his illness became clear on Thursday, when the party announced that he would step back from his duties to focus on his health, and that President To Lam, a former security minister, would take over his responsibilities. For 12 years, Mr. Trong sat at the apex of power in Viet

Known for his “blazing furnace” anticorruption campaign, Mr. Trong consolidated power in one of the world’s few remaining Communist dictatorships. By Sui-Lee Wee Nguyen Phu Trong, the hard-line general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party who presided over his country’s economic and geopolitical transformation, and reshaped its leadership with his “blazing furnace” anticorruption campaign, died on Friday at a hospital in Hanoi. He was 80. His death was announced by the official Nhan Dan newspaper, which said that Mr. Trong had died of “old age” and an unspecified serious illness. Speculation