Lin Cheng-chieh

Lin's father Lin Kwun-rung was a Kuomintang spy. The government sent him to China in 1956, where he was jailed until 1980. Following his release, Lin Kwan-rung spent three years at his ancestral home in Fujian until, with the help of his wife, he returned to Taiwan in 1983.[1] Lin Cheng-chieh studied political science at Tunghai University, and attended graduate school at National Chengchi University.

Lin was known as one of "three musketeers" of the tangwai movement, alongside Chen Shui-bian and Frank Hsieh.[2][3] He ran as a tangwai candidate and won a seat on the Taipei City Council in 1981.[4] Lin won reelection in 1985.[1] The next year, the defendants involved in the Kaohsiung Incident began serving their prison sentences. Lin was credited with leading a protest calling for democratization, an action that became a catalyst for the establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party, of which Lin is a founding member.[5][6] Months after the protest, Lin was stripped of his office upon being imprisoned in September on charges of libel.[7][8] Lin accused Hu Yi-shou of financial impropriety. Alongside libel charges, Hu filed a second lawsuit against Lin, claiming that Lin had violated election law in his 1985 campaign.[9] In February 1987, Lin's sentence was extended by eight months.[10] Within the DPP, he led the Progress faction, a collective opposed to Taiwan independence.[11] Lin left the DPP in June 1991,[12] shortly after Fei Hsi-ping and Ju Gau-jeng, leading the party to radicalize and openly support Taiwan independence.[13][14] After leaving the DPP, Lin told Alan M. Wachman in July 1991 that "[I]t is not necessarily the case that those who identify themselves as Taiwanese support Taiwan independence... I know a lot of socialists who support reunification. But they speak Taiwanese. They are not willing to speak Mandarin."[15] Lin, who had been elected to the Legislative Yuan in 1989 under the DPP banner,[16][17] served most of his first term and all of his second term as an independent, stepping down in 1996. In September 1993 Lin founded the New Parliament Magazine, a newsletter-like publication with a Pan-Blue editorial line.[18] In 1994, Lin began a hunger strike as part of a larger protest in support of retaining a statue of Guanyin on the grounds of Daan Forest Park.[19] Despite having left the Democratic Progressive Party, Lin served as deputy mayor of Hsinchu under fellow DPP founder James Tsai.[20] Lin later became the chairman of the Chinese Unity Promotion Party.[21]

In August 2006, Lin slapped and kicked Chin Heng-wei, editor of the magazine Contemporary Monthly, during a joint appearance on Formosa TV.[22][23] He was widely criticized by Pan-Blue and Pan-Green political leaders.[24] The Million Voices Against Corruption, President Chen Must Go campaign, a movement he had supported, forbid Lin from participating in a sit-in protest against Chen Shui-bian.[25] However, Lin was permitted to attend a protest outside the Presidential Office led by the group in September.[26] The Taipei District Prosecutors' Office charged Lin with inflicting bodily harm on Chin Heng-wei in October 2006,[27] and Lin was eventually sentenced to a 50-day prison term.[28] In August 2007, Lin and others were indicted for their actions during the Presidential Office protest.[29][30] Despite the indictment, Lin continued small protests against Chen by founding the Nine Nine Association.[31] In December, he led a gathering of thirty people to protest the renaming of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.[32] When Chen stepped down from the presidency in 2008, Lin petitioned Chen's successor, Ma Ying-jeou, to bring corruption charges against Chen.[33]

During the 2016 presidential election, Lin supported Hung Hsiu-chu's campaign.[34][35]

Lin was married to musician T. C. Yang.[9][36]