Vietnamese president dies after viral illness

HANOI: Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, a former chief of internal security who became one of the most high-profile leaders in the communist-ruled country, died yesterday after an illness, state media said.

Quang, 61, died in a military hospital here of a “serious illness despite efforts by domestic and international doctors and professors”, Vietnam Television said.

He had hosted a reception for China’s Supreme Court chief on Wednesday, state-owned newspaper Vietnam News said.

Quang had been ill for months, said former health minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu, who oversees healthcare for high-ranking officials.

“He began showing symptoms of illness in June last year and has been treated in Japan six times since,” Trieu said.

“He suffered from a kind of highly virulent virus, for which there has not been any effective treatment.”

Vietnam has no paramount ruler and is officially led by four “pillars”: its president, prime minister, the chief of its Communist Party and the national assembly chair.

Before his April 2016 appointment as president, Quang had been minister of public security, heading an organisation with broad powers responsible for intelligence gathering and thwarting domestic and foreign threats to the party.

Posts about the death of Quang spread quickly on Facebook before state media took the rare step of announcing it within two hours of the event.

At one of Quang’s last appearances, during a visit here by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Sept 11, the president appeared visibly unwell and stumbled as he stepped on to a platform to inspect a guard of honour.

Vietnam’s constitution provides for the vice-president to perform the president’s duties should he be unable to work.

“Vice-president Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh will handle his duties until the National Assembly elects a new president,” said prominent lawyer Tran Vu Hai.