Lin Sen
Lin Sen was head of state of the Republic of China from 1931 to 1943, in an office deliberately drained of power. Born in Fujian in 1868, he was educated at an American missionary school in Fuzhou, worked for the customs service in Taiwan after Japan annexed it in 1895, and joined anti-Qing revolutionary activity there before moving to Shanghai. He joined Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui in 1905 while working in the United States, where he raised funds among overseas Chinese communities, and returned after the 1911 revolution. He was a member of the first parliament and served as speaker of the senate. He held senior Kuomintang posts through the 1920s, generally aligned with the party's conservative Western Hills faction, and served as president of the Legislative Yuan. In December 1931 Chiang Kai-shek was forced to resign temporarily amid the crisis following the Japanese seizure of Manchuria. When the arrangement was patched up, Lin Sen was made Chairman of the National Government — the formal head of state — precisely because he was old, respected and had no independent power base. The constitutional arrangements were altered so that the office had no command of the armed forces and no executive authority; Chiang retained real power as head of the military commission. He performed the ceremonial functions for twelve years with evident dignity, receiving ambassadors and signing documents, and did not attempt to expand the role. He moved with the government to Chongqing after 1937. He was injured in a car accident in Chongqing and died in August 1943. Chiang Kai-shek then took the office himself.
- Lived: 1868 CE – 1943 CE
- Nationality: Chinese
- Roles: head_of_state
