Lin Jian

In this Chinese name, the family name is Lin.

Lin Jian (林剑; born May 1977) is a Chinese diplomat who has been serving as the 34th spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China and deputy director-general of the Department of Press, Communication, and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China since March 2024.^[2] Lin has been working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2020 and was dispatched to serve as party secretary and director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps from 2020 to 2024.^[3][4][5]

Lin Jian
林剑
Lin in March 2024
Deputy Director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office 18 March 2024 Serving with Mao Ning, Wang Wenbin, Jiang Xiaoyan, Hu Jian
Director	Hua Chunying Mao Ning
Personal details
Born	May 1977 (age 47) Wuhan, Hubei, China[1]
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Alma mater	Beijing Foreign Studies University (BA)
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	林剑
Traditional Chinese	林劍
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Lín Jiàn

Biography

Lin was born into a military family in Wuhan, Hubei, in May 1977.^[6] Lin attended Wuhan Foreign Languages School for high school and graduated in 1995. He went on for undergraduate education and graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University with a major in English in 1999. After graduation, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1999 and was selected to study abroad in Denmark.^[7] He was later assigned to the Political Office at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Denmark.^[7] Since then, he had served as political counselor at the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Poland and as counselor at the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.^[3][7][8]

From 2020 to 2024, he was dispatched to serve as party secretary and director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.^[7] During his tenure in Xinjiang, in 2022, he took part in talks seeking to boost exchanges in trade and tourism between Xinjiang and Hong Kong.^[1]

Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On 18 March 2024, Lin was appointed as the 34th spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as deputy director-general of the Department of Press, Communication, and Public Diplomacy of the ministry. On the same day, he presided his first regular press conference.^{[1][7][9][10]}

Cyber attack accusations

In March 2024, Lin accused the United Kingdom and the United States of "political manipulation" after both of these countries blamed a Chinese state-run cyber unit over an alleged cyber attack on Britain's electoral commission and Members of Parliament. He further added that both the US and the UK should "stop politicising cyber security issues".^[11]

South China Sea

During a visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Manila in March 2024, Lin told the US of having no rights to interfere between China and the Philippines' issues on the South China Sea.^[12] In April 2024, he said on a scheduled news conference that the Philippines should "stop bringing external forces to safeguard its so-called security" on disputed waters. He further stated that such showcasing of external forces shall provoke confrontations and aggravate tensions.^[13]

In May 2024, he expressed China's concerns over the deployment of a US-launched missile system as the US transports it to the northern region of the Philippines.^[14] In November 2024, Lin also claimed that the territorial dispute will not escalate if the Philippines no longer "infringes and provokes". This was his response to Filipino Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro's comments of China's "ramping up pressure" to the Philippines.^[15]

US tariffs

After the Biden administration announced new tariffs and additional import taxes on Chinese electric vehicles and goods, Lin made a statement saying, "Instead of ending those wrong practices, the US continues to politicize trade issues, abuse the so-called review process of Section 301 tariffs and plan tariff hikes".^[16]