Lin Jian

Lin Jian (born May 1977) is a Chinese diplomat who has been serving as the 34th spokesperson and deputy director of the Information Department of the Ministry of foreign affairs since March 2024. 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.

Biography
Lin was born into a military family in Wuhan, Hubei, in May 1977. 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. He was later assigned to the Political Office at the Embassy of China in Denmark. Since then, he had served as political counselor at the Embassy of China in Poland and as counselor at the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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. 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.

On 18 March 2024, he became the 34th spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as deputy director of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the same day, he presided his first regular press conference.

Cyber Attack Accusations
As the spokesperson of the foreign ministry, on 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 (MPs). He further added that both the U.S. and the U.K. should "stop politicising cyber security issues".

South China Sea
During a visit of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Manila on March 2024, Lin told the U.S. of having no rights to interfere between China and the Philippines' issues on the South China Sea. On 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.

On May 2024, he expressed China's concerns over the deployment of a US-launched missle system as the U.S. transports it to the northern region of the Philippines.

U.S. 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 U.S. continues to politicize trade issues, abuse the so-called review process of Section 301 tariffs and plan tariff hikes".