Lin Chia-lung

Lin Chia-lung (Chinese: 林佳龍; pinyin: Lín Jiālóng; born 13 February 1964) is a Taiwanese political scientist and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan since 20 May 2024.

[1] After graduating from Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Lin Chia-lung attended National Taiwan University (NTU), where he received his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)

[6][7] His doctoral dissertation was titled, "Paths to democracy: Taiwan in comparative perspective," and was supervised by political scientist Juan José Linz.

[8] Returning to Taiwan after graduating from Yale, Lin served on the faculty of the political science department at National Chung Cheng University as an assistant professor from 1999 through 2004.

[2] His research interests included the democratization of Taiwan, as well as the political and economic development of the People's Republic of China, and has written several books on the subjects.

[13] Lin represented the government position in a debate against Legislator Kao Chin Su-mei, where he argued in favor of arms procurements which would be submitted to referendum the following year.

[14] Due to his performance as cabinet spokesman, Lin was appointed director of the Government Information Office (GIO) by President Chen Shui-bian following his reelection in 2004.

[16] Controversy over the program later arose in August 2005, five months after Lin had left GIO, surrounding the delay in disbursing NT$400 million in donations to various charities and NGOs.

He resigned on 4 April 2021 in the aftermath of the Hualien train derailment which killed at least 49 people,[26] stating that he would take full political responsibility for the crash and will leave once the rescue work ends.