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David Lin

Politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ5236615
Source-derived summary

Lin Yung-lo (Chinese: 林永樂; pinyin: Lín Yǒnglè; born 10 March 1950), also known as David Lin, is a Taiwanese politician who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan. Since 2023, he has been serving as the chairman of the Association of Foreign Relations (AFR) since his election in late 2022.

Early life and education

Lin graduated with a B.A. and an M.A. in commerce from National Chengchi University. He then earned a Master of Science (M.S.) in foreign service from Georgetown University at the Walsh School of Foreign Service in 1990.

He was also a member of the Taipei Toastmasters club.

ROC Foreign Ministry

Lin was appointed to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China on 27 September 2012 replacing the incumbent Minister Timothy Yang after the ROC cabinet reshuffle.

Regarding the refusal of Republic of China delegates to attend the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue in March 2013, Lin said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) needed to seek clarification from Indonesia on the withdrawal of the invitation, noting it may have followed verbal objections from Beijing.

After the signing of a fisheries agreement between Taiwan and Japan on April 10, 2013, Lin stated that the agreement did not address competing sovereignty claims over the Diaoyutai Islands, as both sides had set aside the dispute at that time.

In response to the establishment of a mainland Chinese trade mission in São Tomé and Príncipe in November 2013, Lin said the move was unlikely to affect Taiwan’s diplomatic relations with the country, while noting that MOFA would review its assistance programs as needed.

Taiwanese fisherman shooting incident

After a May 2013 shooting involving a Taiwanese fisherman and a Philippine government vessel, Lin demanded an apology, compensation, and accountability, and said the incident violated international law.

Editorial summary

“David Lin” enters the record as politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what David, Politician and former can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950, 2023, 2022, 1990—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-03-10. Its strongest next move is a source search built around David, Politician and former.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“David Lin” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, David, Politician and former provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5236615. VIAF identifies the subject as 39223563. The Library of Congress control number is nr89017788. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950, 2023, 2022 and 1990.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “David Lin”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow David Lin primary sources, David Lin archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from David Lin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.