Edgar Jun-Yi Lin

Background

Edgar Jun-Yi Lin was born on July 23, 1938 in Taipei, Taiwan. Son of Chao-Pin and Sue-Moui Lin.

Education

Edgar Jun-Yi Lin studied English at National Taiwan University and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in ecology from the University of Indiana. He remained in the United States for a time, working as a research fellow for the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

Career

After his return to Taiwan, Lin taught at Tunghai University. Edgar Jun-Yi Lin began participating in Taiwan's environmental movement in the 1980s. He became known as a "godfather" of the cause and was a noted anti-nuclear activist, later serving Greenpeace Taiwan as its president.

Edgar Jun-Yi Lin led Taipei's Bureau of Environmental Protection while Chen Shui-bian was mayor. Chen was elected president in 2000, and Lin was appointed minister of the Environmental Protection Administration by Premier Tang Fei in April, taking office with the rest of the cabinet on 20 May. Shortly after joining the EPA, Edgar Jun-Yi Lin renounced his opposition to nuclear energy, stating that he had held that stance largely to combat totalitarianism. In October, he made his first trip to the United States in an official capacity and became the first EPA executive to include environmentalists as part of his contingent abroad. The Amorgos oil spill occurred in January 2001, and the Executive Yuan was criticized for its delayed response. Subsequently, Edgar Jun-Yi Lin resigned his position in March.

In August of that year, Edgar Jun-Yi Lin was named ambassador to The Gambia. He served until December 2004, when he was sworn in as Taiwan's representative to the United Kingdom. His first trip in the UK took place the next month. While in the UK, Lin has spoken out against the One China principle, Anti-Secession Law, and one country, two systems. Instead, Edgar Jun-Yi Lin proposed that the European Union pass its own version of the United States' Taiwan Relations Act.

Interests

• reading, mountain climbing, traveling

• Sport & Clubs

  tennis

Connections

Father:

Chao-Pin Lin

Mother:

Sue-Moui Lin

Spouse:

Kathleen L. Yoder

(m. September 5, 1969)

child:

Emily A. Lin

child:

Christopher E. Lin

child:

Edgar S. Lin