Wai Lin

Wai Lin (Chinese: 林慧; pinyin: Lín Huì) is a fictional character in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, portrayed by Michelle Yeoh.

She first encounters Bond when she is sent (under disguise as a Xinhua News Agency reporter) to investigate the disappearance of stealth material from a People's Liberation Army base which is connected to media mogul Elliot Carver, who plans to start a war between China and the United Kingdom.

Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu [zh] (朱耀偉), author of Lost in Transition: Hong Kong Culture in the Age of China, wrote that the film and its promotional materials "incessantly highlighted" the character's "Chineseness".

[3] In the film's novelization by Raymond Benson, Wai Lin has an entire chapter devoted to introduce her character, detailing "her involvement with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, her training, her skills, and many other facets of her life that made her a real person.

However, this idea fell through so Wai Lin was replaced by Chinese intelligence agent Mr. Chang (played by Ho Yi) in the finished film.