Zhao Lin (Chinese: 赵林) (1906–2003) original name Luo Huimin (Chinese: 罗惠民), also known as Luo Xianglin (Chinese: 罗祥林), was a People's Republic of China politician. He was born in Ji'an, Jiangxi. He was the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Jilin. He was a member of the Central Advisory Commission and a delegate to the 5th National People's Congress. He was a member of the 61 Renegades.
Biography
Zhao Lin reportedly became politically active in 1926 amid the Chinese Civil War, and joined the Communist Youth League (CYL) and the Communist Party in 1927. In 1929, he was named secretary of the Jishui County CYL Committee. He quickly climbed in CYL and, by extension, CCP, hierarchy successively becoming secretary of the CYL Leagues for Shanghai's Wusong district, of Beijing, and Tangshan. He was arrested by Guomingdang authorities in 1931. He was released in 1936 by recanting his loyalty to the CCP in circumstances that would make him the target of Red Guard and Central Case Examination Group attacks as part of the later 61 Renegades' Clique accusations of treason.
During the Cultural Revolution, Zhao Lin was purged as part of the 61 Renegades. Alongside Bo Yibo, An Ziwen, Liu Lantao, Liu Youguang, Zhou Zongying, and others, he would later be among those attending the memorial service for Peng Dehuai and Tao Zhu as victims of the Cultural Revolution in December 1978, shortly after the Third Plenum communiqué.
With most surviving provincial cadres among the 61 being only briefly re-instated at similar levels (e.g. Fu Yutian, Wang De), Zhao Lin is among the rare to have progressed in party-state hierarchy after his rehabilitation. He would later thank "the dear Party which had given [him] a political life for the second time". Within the Shandong Provincial Party Committee he acted as secretary between 1979 and 1983 and vice-chairman in 1979.
Between 1982, following the 12th Party Congress, and until 1985, Zhao Lin served as a member in the Central Advisory Commission. In 1985, he was in the leading group for the Central Guidance Committee for Party Rectification (see Party Rectification Campaign).
Zhao died on May 2003 in Jinan. A number of key figures and high cadres of the CCP paid their respects to his family among which Bo Yibo, Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Weng Jiabao, Qiao Shi, Song Ping, and He Guoqiang and articles commemorating his life were published including in state-affiliated Xinhua.