She was the First Lady of the People's Republic of China from 1983 to 1988, along with Zhuo Lin, the wife of then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

[1] Until the 1980s, she held positions as a pediatrician at the Hubei Provincial Hospital, the vice-president of the Wuhan Women and Children's Health Institute, a committee member on the State Council Family Planning Commission, and chief of the Women and Children's Health Bureau in the Ministry of Health.

[1] Lin, like other Chinese first ladies, did not often appear in public, but accompanied her husband when he met with foreign leaders, both in Beijing and abroad.

[3][4] Lin accompanied Li Xiannian to the USA during the first official visit of President of the People's Republic of China in July 1985.

[5] From 1984, Lin served as the deputy president of the China Medical Committee, as well as bureau chief of the Women and Children's Department of the Ministry of Health.