Lin Renjian

    

Lin Renjian 臨人間
Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Socialists
Incumbent
Assumed office November 2, 2021
Preceded by	Lao Xugang
Premier of the Republic of China
In office February 3 – October 15, 2021
President	Zhao Meijin
Vice PM	Li Zhen
Preceded by	Sun Qizhen
Succeeded by	Yan Xiuren
Parliamentary leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists delegation
In office January 12, 2016 – January 25, 2021
Preceded by	Position created
Succeeded by	Chen Wenyang
Member of the Legislative Yuan
In office January 12, 2016 – January 25, 2021
Constituency	Lanzhou
Personal details
Born	(1982-12-10) December 10, 1982 Lanzhou, China
Political party	Democratic Party of Socialists
Profession	Chess player
Title	Grandmaster (1996)
Peak rating	2731 (March 2014)
Sports career
Sport	Chess
Medal record Representing China Asian Games 2006 Doha Men's individual 2006 Doha Mixed team 2010 Guangzhou Men's individual 2010 Guangzhou Mixed team

Lin Renjian (Chinese: 臨人間, born December 10, 1982) is a Chinese politician and former chess player. He was the Premier of the Republic of China from February to October 2021, a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2016 to 2021, and was one of the founders of the Democratic Party of Socialists. Since stepping down as Premier he has been the secretary-general of the DPS.

As a chess player, in 1996 he became the youngest grandmaster in history at the time, at the age 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, and was the Chinese national chess champion in 2000 and 2001. Lin Renjian retired from professional chess in 2010 and became involved in politics in 2012 as one of the founders of the Democratic Party of Socialists. He was elected to the Legislative Yuan in 2016 in the Lanzhou constituency. During the 2020 Chinese presidential election Lin ran for president of the Republic and came in third place with about 15% of the vote. He chose not to run for reelection in 2021 in his district to focus on the party's national campaign, and after the DPS formed a coalition government with the Democratic Progressives and the Greens in parliament, he also became the youngest Premier in Chinese history at age 38.

Upon being sworn as Chinese Premier in February 2021, Lin led the first non-KMT dominated government since the collapse of communism and the restoration of the republic in 2000. His government focused on reforming institutions that are perceived as corrupt and having become too powerful, as well as restoring ties with Western countries after the tensions caused by the Sino–Manchurian conflict and the China–Sierra trade war. He also implemented the constitutional amendments passed by the coalition in the Legislative Yuan to reform the country's political system to a mixed parliamentary and presidential republic. The DPS-DPP-Green coalition was always fragile due to disagreements, and in he resigned in October 2021 because of some of those disagreements between his party and other members of their coalition, leading to the dissolution of their government and plans for a new election in January 2022. Since stepping down as Premier he has been the secretary-general of his party.

Chess career

Early years

Lin was born December 10, 1982 in Lanzhou, then the People's Republic of China. At age six, Lin was introduced to chess by a relative, and his interest in it increased as he got older. He began taking chess seriously at the age of nine years and received early training from then on from a local chess club. By 1992, he had already won the provincial Junior Chess Championship. In 1994 at the age of 12, he captured the titles of national junior champion and under-14 world champion. In 1995 he finished seventh in the prestigious Tan Chin Nam Grandmaster Invitational Tournament. Since 1995 he has played for the Tianjin chess club in the China Chess League.

Youngest grandmaster in history

A sponsorship contract with a company in his home city of Lanzhou in 1996 with his coach to travel to Europe to take part there in several international chess tournaments. In autumn 1996 he achieved within two months the required three norms for the title of Grandmaster (GM), with tournament wins at Paks GM tournament (6/9 points) in 21–29 September, at Kluger Memorial - First Saturday tournament (8½/11 pts) in Budapest in 3–13 October, and coming joint first in the Qingdao Daily Cup (6/8 pts) in 18–23 October. He was 13 years, 10 months, and 13 days old when he scored the final norm, at the time the youngest person to achieve that title. Adding to his victories, he won the German Open in 1996.

He was the Chinese national champion in 2000 and 2001, and won medals at the Asian Games in 2006 and 2010 in several events.

Political career

After his retirement from professional chess in late 2010, he began focusing on politics. Lin had been a member of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) from 2007 to 2011, when he decided to leave the party over ideological and policy disagreements. In late 2012, he was one of the founders of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which was formed as an alternative to the Kuomintang that opposed what they perceived as the party's corruption and straying away from many of its principles. They saw the KMT as being captive to oligarchic business interests and corrupt politicians. The DPS wanted to reform the government to become more efficient and serve the interests of the people, while being socially conservative, therefore not being fully aligned with the already existing Democratic Progressive Party of China (DPP). Lin Renjian became the leader of the party early on, and it grew in membership over the years, enough to participate in the 2016 Chinese legislative election. It gained 23 seats and was in 5th place overall in the total number of votes. Lin himself became a member of the Legislative Yuan in 2016 after running in his home Lanzhou constituency, where he got elected with 59.7% of the vote.

During his time as a member of parliament, his party remained in opposition to the Kuomintang majority. He mainly used his parliamentary seat to give the party a greater voice in politics. The DPS gained in popularity and continued campaigning, along with other opposition parties, gaining widespread support over the course of the next five years and siphoning off many KMT voters. Lin himself chose not to run again for the Legislative Yuan in his constituency as he became more active in the role of party leader. In late 2020 he negotiated with DPP leader Tang Zhonglin and others to create a possible new coalition government as the Kuomintang's support fell in the polls. As part of their agreement, the DPS would support a coalition government with the DPP in return for Lin Renjian becoming the Premier and several other ministerial portfolios in the Executive Yuan going to DPS members. After the Democratic Party of Socialists and other parties had a historic success in the January 2021 election, winning 141 seats, Lin would be sworn in as the Chinese Premier in February 2021.

Premiership

Lin Renjian began his premiership on February 3, 2021, after his appointment to the position was approved by the Legislative Yuan. His cabinet was approved by the legislature as well and would form a coalition government, the first in Chinese political history since the foundation of the modern republic back in 2000. For the first time, the Democratic Party of Socialists formed a government along with the Democratic Progressive Party and the Green Party of China with unifying beliefs being support for economic populism, adherence towards non-interventionism, and opposition to the Kuomintang and push for major political and institutional reform coming from their opposition to the influence of Ren Longyun during his two decade tenure as president. Upon the formation of the cabinet, these policies from the parties' coalition agreement would be laid out by Lin Renjian as part of the agenda for his government.

In the first three months his premiership, he began reforming the Chinese state institutions in accordance with the Additional Articles to the Constitution of the Republic of China that were passed by the coalition in the Legislative Yuan in March. These defined the state as a mixed parliamentary and presidential system rather than a semi-presidential republic as before. As part of this, the office of the Premier took on many of the roles of the presidency as the premier became the chief executive and leading political figure in the country, making Lin the de facto leader of China. President Zhao Meijin, an independent aligned with the opposition Kuomintang, cooperated with Lin in the implementation of these reforms. He also increased the powers of the Control Yuan to investigate government officials for corruption. Lin sent his Vice Premier, Li Zhen, as the head of the Chinese delegation to the 2021 China–Sierra summit in Anchorage, Alaska, hoping to defuse the tensions between the two powers since the 2014 Manchurian crisis.

In June 2021, he announced a policy of providing additional financial support to Chinese during the economic hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and expanded social welfare policies, while also pledging to increase working conditions. Lin stated that China will not have any more lock downs and would prioritize access to the vaccine to vulnerable demographics. In September he got involved in controversy after refusing pressure from some lawmakers of the Democratic Progressive Party, including Speaker of the Legislative Yuan Tang Zhonglin, to remove former long-time President Ren Longyun from his position as Secretary of the National Security Council, which gave the former president a lot of power over China's security services. His presence was seen as too much of a concession to the Kuomintang and as an obstacle to future reform, but Lin saw it as necessary to gain the cooperation of the president and other bureaucrats with the current reforms. Lin also refused to remove high ranking members of the military and security agencies that were seen by some Democratic Progressives to be loyalists of Ren Longyun. Lin stated in response that he expects all members of the ROC Armed Forces and government to be loyal to the country and not to one man. Nonetheless, the incident was considered to be the first major disagreement within the coalition.

The following month the Democratic Party of Socialists refused to vote with the DPP to advance several socially liberal policies in the Legislative Yuan, leaving them without enough votes to pass. It was seen as a culmination of the past several months of increasing differences between the two leading coalition members, and caused the coalition to fall apart as they could not reach an agreement. As there was no longer a coalition that had the majority in the Legislative Yuan, on October 15, 2021, Premier Lin Renjian handed his resignation to the parliament and the president. President Zhao announced the appointment of Yan Xiuren as acting premier and that a new election will be held in January 2022.

Party leader

On November 2, 2021, Lin was selected by his party's national committee to be the Secretary-General ahead of the 2022 election, leading the party's campaign in the months leading up to the election.

Personal life

He is married to Chen Xia, a female Chinese chess champion, since 2005.