Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
After the foundation of the PRC, Lin took up a variety of positions, though preferred to stay out of the political limelight. In September 1954, he was elected Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. In the years that followed, he undertook lengthy inspection tours of primarily rural provinces, beginning with his native Hunan and continuing to Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hubei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia.