As the Associated Press reported on Friday, the statement on Quang’s death from Vietnamese government officials was vague on some major details: The AP described…
As the Associated Press reported on Friday, the statement on Quang’s death from Vietnamese government officials was vague on some major details:
The AP described Quang as “frail” in his last public appearance on Wednesday at a reception for visitors from China and noted there was speculation about his health when he vanished from public view for a month last year.
The New York Times remembered Quang as a “former police general” and “hardliner” who will not be much missed by human rights advocates, having presided over a brutal crackdown on dissent.
Under Vietnam’s system, the presidency is actually the least powerful of three executive positions, the other two being prime minister and general secretary of the Communist Party. Quang boosted his office into the number two spot with an anti-corruption crusade that was really a thinly-veiled political purge and security measures, including a sweeping cybersecurity law, that were abused to suppress dissent. His heavy-handed rule disappointed Vietnamese intellectuals who hoped his upbringing and education might make him a reformer.
Quang’s career path to the top spot of party secretary was blocked when he went a little too far and became involved with the kidnapping of a Vietnamese oil executive from Berlin in broad daylight last year, dragging him back to Vietnam for a brisk trial and life in prison on corruption charges.
On the way from Germany to Vietnam, the executive fell down the stairs a couple of times and decided to make a televised confession upon arriving in Hanoi. The incident became a major international embarrassment for Vietnam because the operation involved some Eastern European abduction consultants with Cold War resumes. One of the perpetrators ended up in a German prison.
The more upbeat obituaries for Quang portrayed him as a rival of the party secretary he had ambitions to replace, Nguyen Phu Trong, who walked an even harder Communist political line and was responsible for many of Vietnam’s recent purges. For all his flaws, Quang might be seen as something of a moderating influence if he was a thorn in Trong’s side. Quang’s disappearances over the past year prompted speculation he had been removed from his office, imprisoned, or killed, and some observers thought he was unlikely to continue as president beyond the next big Communist Party meeting.
U. S. Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink chose to accentuate the positive and salute Quang for helping improve relations between America and Vietnam:
Upon his death, Quang’s office was assumed by Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh, who became the first female president of Vietnam. Most observers expect Thinh’s tenure to last only until the Party can meet and choose a permanent president.
