A true nephew of Uncle Ho.

While Mr. Trong was happy to open up Vietnam to the West, he remained suspicious of Western democracy.

“Behind the multiparty system in reality is still the tyranny of capitalist corporations,” he wrote in a 2022 book.

He added: “The reality is that the democratic institutions according to the ‘liberal democracy’ formula that the West tries to promote and impose on the world do not ensure that power truly belongs to the people, by the people and for the people.”

Nguyen Phu Trong, Powerful Vietnamese Leader, Is Dead at 80 (NYTimes)