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 per cent 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.
