In recent days, social networks have widely shared a 1 minute and 28 second video clip on Radio Free Asia’s Youtube channel, with the title “Mr. Trong’s speech ‘I am old, really want to transfer to the younger generation’ was omitted.“
The first part of this clip shows Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong giving a speech before Xi Jinping. Mr. Trong choked up and almost burst into tears when he said: “Comrade Xi Jinping is much younger than me. But I’m already old, and I really want to entrust and transfer to the younger generation…”
One thing of concern is that that information and images were not updated and reported by Vietnam’s state-controlled media, in news reports related to Chinese President Xi Jing’s recent visit to Vietnam.
Scholar Truong Nhan Tuan from Paris, on his personal Facebook page, in a status titled, “Why was General Secretary Trong emotional when giving a speech in front of Xi Jinping?” made notable comments.
Mr. Tuan said: “Watching the video clip (on RFA), General Secretary Trong seemed very emotional when giving a speech to Xi Jinping. With a voice almost like crying, he said, ‘I’m old, I really want to transfer to the younger generation…”‘
Mr. Truong Nhan Tuan commented, “It’s surprising. The issue of power transfer is an internal matter of the Vietnamese Party. People only talk about this within the Party among themselves, among competent party members. Mr. Trong confided in front of a ‘national guest’ Chinese President Xi Jinping, as a confession between two extremely trusted ‘comrades and brothers’.”
Scholar Truong Nhan Tuan asked a very interesting question “Why did Mr. Trong get emotional and “wanted to cry” when talking about transferring power to the “younger generation“?
Evaluation of the results of the 8th Plenum, session 13, a Central Conference with very important content. That is discussing personnel work for the 14th Party National Congress slated in early 2026. According to observers, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong for the first time experienced an uneventful mid-term Plennum.
Specifically, the most important human resources issues raised by Mr. Trong at this plenum are:
One, unsuccessfully filling two vacant Politburo member left by Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Pham Binh Minh. The intention to bring Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang to the Politburo also failed.
Second, the plan to push Minister To Lam from the Ministry of Public Security and let his trusted junior, Phan Dinh Trac, fill his position also failed.
Third, the plan to destroy Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also failed. Only managed to behead Nguyen Van Doc, a trusted henchman of the Prime Minister at the time in Quang Ninh.
The only personnel issue that Mr. Trong was successful in was that the plenum agreed to elect additional Head of the Foreign Affairs Committee Le Hoai Trung to the Central Secretariat.
The things just listed show that, in matters of high-level personnel of the Communist Party of Vietnam, at the present time, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has shown no authority. That means, up to this point, Mr. Trong did not get what he wanted.
That is why, the “Key Personnel Plan” of the Central Committee, the Politburo, the Secretariat and senior leadership positions of the Party and State for the 14th Party Congress had to be abandoned, to discuss further in the following plenum.
Through the 8th Plenum, it has been shown that the reputation of the General Secretary has declined seriously, unprecedentedly, and is real. That is completely consistent with the assessment of public opinion, as well as political observers at home and abroad. Before the 8th Plenum, many opinions agreed that:
“From choosing personnel arbitrarily, by factions, by scams, unscientifically and unfairly, leading to a personnel crisis. The Party’s selection of the Party’s team is so “excellent”, so that today people can clearly see that the “star” and key personnel, from the locality to the central levels, are all a bunch of insatiable greed and brazen robbery, committing crimes “heaven will not forgive, earth will not forgive”, through the big cases of “Viet A,” “rescue flight,” and “AIC case” as well as others.
Back to the issue, why is Nguyen Phu Trong, as the head of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam, so emotional that he is about to burst into tears in front of Xi Jinping, in his role as a state guest of Vietnam?
Since the 12th National Congress (2016), thanks to the enthusiastic help of Beijing, Trong “defeated” former Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, forcing him to wipe away his tears and return to retire “to be a kind person.” From then on, Nguyen Phu Trong became a powerful dictator, dominating the entire Vietnamese political scene.
Hopefully, those crocodile tears show us a new ambition of Trong. Once again, he used tears to hope that the Beijing leadership will support him so that Nguyen Phu Trong will continue to hold the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam for the fourth term.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
