Lin Yi-hsiung

Lin Yi-hsiung
林義雄
Lin Yi-hsiung at the rally for direct presidential election in 1992
6th Chairperson of the DPP
In office July 18, 1998 – April 20, 2000
Preceded by	Hsu Hsin-liang
Succeeded by	Frank Hsieh
Personal details
Born	(1941-08-24) August 24, 1941 (age 75) Goketsu Village, Ratō District, Taihoku Prefecture, Japanese Taiwan (modern-day Wujie Township, Yilan County, Taiwan)
Political party	Democratic Progressive Party(1989-2006) Independent (2006-present)
Spouse(s)	Fang Su-min
Alma mater	National Taiwan University Harvard University
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer

Lin Yi-hsiung (Chinese: 林義雄; born August 24, 1941) is a politician from Taiwan. He was a major leader of the democratization movement in Taiwan. He graduated from the Department of Law of National Taiwan University. He was first exposed to politics in 1976 while serving as attorney for Kuo Yu-hsin () (1908–1985) who sued the ruling KMT party for electoral fraud. Lin was elected a member of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly (now defunct) in Kuo's old electorate in 1977.

Lin was arrested in December 1979 for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident. On February 27, 1980 Lin Yi-hsiung was in detention and beaten severely by the police. His wife saw him in prison and contacted the Amnesty International Osaka office. The next day Lin's mother and twin 7 year old daughters were stabbed to death. The authorities claimed to know nothing about it, even though his house was under 24-hour police surveillance. There are no suspects to this day.

Lin's eldest daughter, Judy Linton (), was badly wounded in the incident and was the only survivor. She later traveled to the United States, embraced Christianity, and married Rev. Joel Linton. She is now a renown pianist and gospel singer in Taiwan.

In 1984, Lin left jail on parole, and went to Harvard University with his wife.

Lin returned to Taiwan in 1989 and became a major advocate against nuclear power in Taiwan soon after. In 1995, he ran and lost in the Democratic Progressive Party's four-way primary for the 1996 Taiwan presidential election.

Three years later, Lin Yi-hsiung became the 8th Chairman of Democratic Progressive Party (1998–2000) and successfully ran a campaign for Chen Shui-bian as the 10th President of the Republic of China. Immediately following Chen's election in May 2000, Lin demonstrated his unwillingness to share the spoils of victory in a surprising retirement from DPP's chairmanship. Citing Robert Frost's poem, he retired with the remark that he preferred to take "the road less travelled by".