Nguyen Ba Thanh

Nguyễn Bá Thanh (18 April 1953 – 13 February 2015 ) was a Vietnamese politician.

He was party secretary and people's council president in Da Nang (two of the three top leadership positions), member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam and head of the PCC Internal Affairs Commission, a central committee consulting agency for internal policies and strategies. He formerly served as President of the People's Committee of Da Nang City.

Early life Nguyễn Bá Thanh was born on April 8, 1953, from Hòa Vang, Đà Nẵng. He was the 14th generation of the Nguyễn Bá family in Hòa Tiến. His father was Nguyễn Bá Tùng. He had an older sister who was four years older named Nguyễn Thị Hoa. In 1954, after the Geneva Agreement, his father went North while his mother, his sister, and he stayed in Đà Nẵng. His sister died at age 10 due to an illness which could not be treated due to financial reasons. He also had a younger brother named Nguyễn Bá Bình. Nguyễn Bá Bình married Thái Thủy, and they had three children named Nguyễn Bá Trung, Nguyễn Thị Hiếu, and Nguyễn Bá Hậu.

After graduating from Hanoi University of Agriculture, he was assigned to work as an agricultural officer. He was then promoted to Manager of Hòa Nhơn Cooperative and admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam on 13 February 1980.

Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act According to Radio Free Asia, Nguyen Ba Thanh was included in a submitted Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act blacklist to be blocked from entering the United States or making transactions in all property.

Controversies Da Nang has been planned and expanded during the last 10 years resulting in the relocation of almost one-third of the city's former inhabitants for urban planning. Thanh was sued by some of these but he was acquitted by official investigations which purportedly showed that all his actions were in accordance with the law. Thanh was elected to the National Assembly.

Nguyễn Bá Thanh was also accused of involvement in a major corruption case, in which the contractor building the Han River Bridge, Phạm Minh Thông, was arrested. According to Radio Free Asia, the People's Procuracy of Da Nang City concluded in the Document No. 73/KSDT-KT (October, 2000) and Document No. 77/KSDT/KT (November 2000) sent to the Supreme People's Procuracy of Vietnam and Phan Diễn (then-Secretary of Communist Party Committee of Danang) that Nguyễn Bá Thanh received bribes from Pham Minh Thong (4.4 billion VND in total) in the construction projects of Hàn River Bridge and North-South Street in Danang. ) were censored and even praised Thanh for his "many contributions" in the development of Da Nang City. All were accused of "abusing democratic freedoms of association, expression, assembly to infringe on the interests of the state". According to an article from Radio Free Asia, general Trần Văn Thanh was fighting against corruption and trying to expose Nguyễn Bá Thanh, albeit without success.

Talking to Radio Free Asia, Đỗ Xuân Hiền, a former Head of Economics in Da Nang and General District Commissioner, revealed how Nguyễn Bá Thanh became rich through urban planning and relocation implementation: "Nguyễn Bá Thanh took the land from people, for each square meter he gave them only 19,500 VND as compensation, while having demanded 150,000 VND per m² for himself from contractors, try asking a how many times fold! Thus is it corruption, bribery or not?" According to an annual report of Human Rights Watch, land seizures and local corruption are the main grievances in Vietnam recently.

Death On 13 February 2015, Nguyễn Bá Thanh died at his home at age 61 after going to Singapore and United States for cancer treatment.