David Lin
Politician and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan

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.
“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.
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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.
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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.