Lin Sen
Encyclopedia
Lin Sen courtesy name Zichao (子超), sobriquet Changren (長仁), was President of the National Government
President of the Republic of China
The President of the Republic of China is the head of state and commander-in-chief of the Republic of China . The Republic of China was founded on January 1, 1912, to govern all of China...

 of the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...

 from 1931 until his death.

Early life

Born to a middle class family in Shangan Township (尚幹鄉), Minhou County
Minhou County
Minhou County is a county of Fujian Province, China. It is under the administration of Fuzhou city....

 (閩侯縣), Fujian
Fujian
' , formerly romanised as Fukien or Huguing or Foukien, is a province on the southeast coast of mainland China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, and Guangdong to the south. Taiwan lies to the east, across the Taiwan Strait...

, Lin was educated by American missionaries. He later worked in the Telegram Bureau of Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 in 1884. After the First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...

, he engaged in guerrilla activities against the Japanese occupiers. He returned to the mainland and worked in the Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

 customs office in 1902. He later lived in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...

 and San Francisco.

There he was recruited by the Tongmenghui
Tongmenghui
The Tongmenghui, also known as the Chinese United League, United League, Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, Chinese Alliance and United Allegiance Society, was a secret society and underground resistance movement formed when merging many Chinese revolutionary groups together by Sun Yat-sen, Song...

 in 1905, and was an overseas organizer for the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...

. During the Xinhai Revolution
Xinhai Revolution
The Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, also known as Revolution of 1911 or the Chinese Revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing , and established the Republic of China...

, he was in charge of the Jiangxi
Jiangxi
' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...

 revolt. He became speaker of the senate in the National Assembly
National Assembly of the Republic of China
The National Assembly of the Republic of China refers to several parliamentary bodies that existed in the Republic of China. The National Assembly was originally founded in 1913 as the first legislature in Chinese history, but was disbanded less than a year later as President Yuan Shikai assumed...

. After the failed Second Revolution against President Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai
Yuan Shikai was an important Chinese general and politician famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China , and his short-lived...

, Lin fled with Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...

 to Japan and joined his Chinese Revolutionary Party
Chinese Revolutionary Party
The Chinese Revolutionary Party was the short lived renaming of the Kuomintang between 1914 and 1919....

. He was sent to the United States to raise funds from the party's local branches. In 1917, he followed Sun to Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

 where he continued to lead its "extraordinary session" during the Constitutional Protection Movement. When the assembly defected to the Beiyang government
Beiyang Government
The Beiyang government or warlord government collectively refers to a series of military regimes that ruled from Beijing from 1912 to 1928 at Zhongnanhai. It was internationally recognized as the legitimate Government of the Republic of China. The name comes from the Beiyang Army which dominated...

, he remained with Sun and later served as governor of Fujian.

Lin was a member of the right-wing Western Hills faction based in Shanghai. The group was formed in Beijing shortly after Sun's death in 1925. They called for a party congress to expel the Communists
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...

 and to declare social revolution as incompatible with the KMT's national revolution. The party pre-empted this faction and the ensuing congress expelled Western Hills' leaders and suspended the membership of the followers. They supported Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....

's purge of the communists in 1927. Lin rose to become the leader of the Western Hills faction and undertook a world tour after the demise of the Beiyang government.

As President

In 1931, President Chiang's arrest of Hu Hanmin
Hu Hanmin
Hu Hanmin was one of the early leaders of Kuomintang , and a very important right-winger in Kuomintang.-Biography:Hu Hanmin was qualified as juren at 21 years of age. He studied in Japan since 1902, and joined Tongmenghui as an editor of 《Minbao》 in 1905. From 1907-1910, he participated in...

 caused an uproar within the party and military. Lin and other high ranking officials called for the impeachment of Chiang. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria prevented the civil war from erupting, however it did cause Chiang to resign on December 15. Lin was appointed in his place as acting president and confirmed as president on January 1, 1932. He was chosen as a sign of personal respect and held few powers since the KMT wanted to avoid a repeat of Chiang's rule. He never used the Presidential Palace, which Chiang continued to reside in, and preferred his modest rented house near the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum
Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum is situated at the foot of the second peak of Mount Zijin in Nanjing, China. Construction of the tomb started in January 1926 and was finished in spring of 1929. The architect was Lu Yanzhi, who died shortly after it was finished.- History :Dr...

. Chiang's influence was virtually restored after the Battle of Shanghai (1932) as party grandees realized his necessity.

In 1934 TIME magazine called him "puppet President Lin", and when there was a talk by Chiang Kai-shek at a "Secret conference of government leaders" of granting the President of China actual powers, insinuating that Chiang was entertaining the thought of taking the Presidency himself, since Chiang held the actual power while Lin's position was described as "figurehead class".

Though he had little influence on public policy, Lin was highly respected by the public as an august elder statesman who was above politics. His lack of political ambition, corruption, and nepotism was an exceedingly rare trait. He lent dignity and stability to an office while other state institutions were in chaos.

A widower, Lin used his position to promote monogamy and combat concubinage
Concubinage
Concubinage is the state of a woman or man in an ongoing, usually matrimonially oriented, relationship with somebody to whom they cannot be married, often because of a difference in social status or economic condition.-Concubinage:...

 which became a punishable felony in 1935. He also called for a peaceful resolution when Chiang was kidnapped during the Xi'an Incident
Xi'an Incident
The Xi'an Incident of December 1936 is an important episode of Chinese modern history, taking place in the city of Xi'an during the Chinese Civil War between the ruling Kuomintang and the rebel Chinese Communist Party and just before the Second Sino-Japanese War...

. National unity was something he stressed as relations with Japan deteriorated further.

When the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

 entered full swing in 1937, he moved to the wartime capital of Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...

. He legalized civilian use of guerrilla warfare, but this was just a formality as it was already a widespread practice. He spurned all offers to defect and collaborate with the Japanese puppet government.

Death

On 10 March 1943, his car was involved in an accident. Two days later, he had a stroke while meeting the Canadian delegation. As he was in hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...

, he urged the recovery of Taiwan be included in the post-war settlement; it became part of the Cairo Declaration
Cairo Declaration
The Cairo Declaration was the outcome of the Cairo Conference in Cairo, Egypt, on November 27, 1943. President Franklin Roosevelt of the United States, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom, and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China were present...

 months later. He died on August 1 at the age of 76 and a month of mourning was declared. He was the longest serving head of state in the ROC while it still held mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...

. The central executive committee elected Chiang as president a few hours after Lin's death. All of the powers that were denied to the presidency were restored for Chiang.

Lin visited Qingzhi ("Green Plant") Mountain in Lianjiang, Fuzhou, Fujian and was fascinated by it, which encouraged him to style himself "Old Man Green Plant" (青芝老人 Qingzhi Laoren) in his old age. His monument, built beside Qingzhi Mountain in 1926 before his death, was damaged in the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...

, and was restored in 1979.

Legacy

Lin had adopted his nephew, K.M. James Lin, as his son. While studying as a postgraduate student in Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...

, he eloped with Viola Brown, a five-and-ten-cent store clerk. The president objected to the marriage but eventually relented. The couple divorced in a few months because of the publicity.

There are roads named after Lin Sen in Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

, Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung
Kaohsiung is a city located in southwestern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on the west. Kaohsiung, officially named Kaohsiung City, is divided into thirty-eight districts. The city is one of five special municipalities of the Republic of China...

, Tainan, and other towns and cities in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 due to his role in fighting the Japanese invasion of Taiwan
Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1895)
The Japanese invasion of Taiwan was a conflict between the Empire of Japan and the armed forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa following the Qing Dynasty's cession of Taiwan to Japan in April 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War...

 and as ROC president.

In the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, Lin was denounced for his anti-communism but has since been rehabilitated
Political rehabilitation
Political rehabilitation is the process by which a member of a political organization or government who has fallen into disgrace, is restored to public life. It is usually applied to leaders or other prominent individuals who regain their prominence after a period in which they have no influence or...

 after the Cultural Revolution.
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