Rest in peace, comrade Nguyen Phu Trong!

NYTimes is already out there wishing for a “less conservative communist leader”:

Mr. Trong represented a conservative Marxist-Leninist faction within the party, which includes another faction seen as more pragmatic and moderate. His death is likely to raise hopes in the West that a less doctrinaire leader could emerge. Mr. Trong, the only one in the 18-member Politburo who grew up during the Vietnam War, was a generation older than many of his peers.