THE general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, died today following months of ill health.

The Nhan Dan newspaper reported: “Mr Trong passed away at 13.38 on July 19 at the 108 Central Military Hospital due to old age and serious illness.”

Official media said a state funeral would be held.

Mr Trong had dominated Vietnamese politics since 2011 when he was elected Communist Party general secretary.

Born in 1944 in Hanoi, Mr Trong was a committed Marxist-Leninist who earned a degree in philosophy before becoming a member of the Communist Party at the age of 22. 

He was responsible for launching a sweeping anti-corruption campaign known as the “blazing furnace,” which ousted a number of senior members of the party. 

The party’s politburo asked President To Lam to “preside over the work of the party central committee, the politburo and the secretariat,” according to a statement from its central office.

The Communist Party of China central committee was one of the first to send condolences to the Vietnamese party, saying it “deeply mourned” Mr Trong’s death.