Overview of President Tran Dai Quang’s political career

Tran Dai Quang, Member of the Politburo, and President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam died of serious illness at 10:05 am on September 21 despite the tireless efforts of professors and doctors both at home and abroad to cure him and the great care provided by Party and State leaders, according to an official source from the Board of Healthcare Services for Senior Officials.

Tran Dai Quang was born on October 12, 1956. He joined the Communist Party of Vietnam on July 26, 1980. From July 1972 - October 1975, Quang was a student at the People's Police School and School of Foreign Languages under Ministry of the Interior (now Ministry of Public Security). Between October 1975 and June 1987, he served as an officer at the Political Protection Department I, and as deputy head of Political Protection Department II’s professional office under Ministry of the Interior (now Ministry of Public Security). 

Between September 1996 and October 2000, Quang served as Head of the Security Staff Department under the Ministry of Public Security; member of the Party Committee of the General Security Department; member of the standing board of the Party Committee of the General Security Department; and Secretary of Party Committee of the Security Staff Department, under the Ministry of Public Security. 

From October 2000 – April 2006, he was Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and deputy head of the General Security Department, under the Ministry of Public Security. He was promoted to Major General and conferred with the title of Associate Professor in 2003.

Between April 2006 and January 2011, he was a member of the 10th Party Central Committee, member of the Central Public Security Party Committee, member of standing board of the Central Public Security Party Committee, and Deputy Minister of Public Security. He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 2007 and conferred with the title of Professor in 2009.

From January 2011 – August, 2011, Quang was a member of the Politburo of the 11th Party Central Committee, member of the standing board of the Central Public Security Party Committee, and Deputy Minister of Public Security. 

From August 2011 to March 2016, he was a Politburo member (11th and 12th tenures), member of National Defence and Security Council, member of the Party Committee of the Government, Secretary of the Central Public Security Party Committee, Minister of Public Security. He was promoted to Senior Lieutenant General in 2011 and General in 2012.

Tran Dai Quang was elected as State President at the 11th session of the 13th National Assembly on April 2, 2016. 

Before drawing his last breath, Mr Quang had a busy working week as the President of Vietnam. He met Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi who attended the 2018 World Economic Forum on ASEAN (WEF ASEAN 2018) in Hanoi on September 13.

Also on September 13, President Quang received the First Vice President of the Councils of State and Ministers of Cuba Salvador Valdes Mesa who visited Vietnam, and attended activities to mark the 45th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s visit to the liberated zone in the south of Vietnam during the war of the Vietnamese people against US imperialists. 

Mr Quang presided over the sixth meeting of the Central Steering Committee for Judicial Reforms in Hanoi on September 15.

The meeting was held to discuss a report on amendments and supplements to the committee’s working regulations for the 2016-2021 term submitted by the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Internal Affairs, along with a report of the Central Military Commission on revisions to a plan of reform for the organisation and activities of the army’s judicial agencies.

President Quang hosted a reception for Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court of China Zhou Qiang in Hanoi on September 19.

Also on the afternoon of September 19, Mr Quang received the heads of delegations to the 14th Assembly of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (ASOSAI 14).

On September 20, President Quang sent a kind letter of congratulations to Vietnamese children at home and abroad on the occasion of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.