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Justin Lin
He has been named the new chief economist at the World Bank. Wikipedia claims he left his wife and family behind in Taiwan to defect to mainland China. He even swam across some ocean to do so. It seems to be true.
Why would I not pick this man? But at least one smart person who knows Lin is very happy. Here are some of Lin's articles, including a well-cited piece for Cato Journal. Here is his CV. He must be very adept at dealing with bureaucracy.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 20, 2008 at 09:46 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
He left his wife and child, as in abandoned them? Whatever happened to his family, then?
Posted by: jason voorhees at Jan 20, 2008 9:59:50 PM
Nobody would be insane enough to swim across the entire straits. Or, at least, arrive alive.
He swam from Kinmen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinmen
Posted by: david at Jan 20, 2008 10:15:22 PM
Some videos and publications of him from World Bank
http://bayesianheresy.blogspot.com/2008/01/taiwan-born-justin-yifu-lin-to-be-world.html
http://bayesianheresy.blogspot.com/2008/01/economist-who-swarm-from-democracy-to.html
Posted by: MJ at Jan 20, 2008 10:24:41 PM
My first cynical/sarcastic though: "BRILLIANT political move!"
I guess I have a bit too much China fear, though.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Jan 20, 2008 11:05:27 PM
The distance swum would have been a few kilometers at most (presumably between Lesser Jinmen island and the mainland-controlled Xiamen island). Doable for a strong swimmer, but you'd have to hope you calculated the tides and ocean currents right. Swimming from Taiwan island itself to the mainland is of course outright impossible (a couple hundred kilometers at the very least).
Today you can take a ferry.
Posted by: at Jan 21, 2008 12:29:41 AM
Also, in 1979, Taiwan wasn't much of a democracy, and the PRC was just getting off the mat after its long Maoist night.
Posted by: Foobarista at Jan 21, 2008 1:07:35 AM
Actually, 1979 was an exciting time to live in Taiwan. Carter had just broken diplomatic relations (Dec. '78) and beginning 1/1/79, Taiwanese were free for the first time in history to travel abroad for any reason, no the phony "business" reasons required to secure an exit visa. Thousands did exactly that, armed with shopping lists of countries they were considering moving to, or failing that, price lists for passports (primarily issued by Latin American nations). True, the election campaign going on when Carter broke relations was suspended, but the genie was already out of the bottle by that time and an amazing amount of hitherto unheard of criticism was published and passed around at hitherto unheard of large-scale opposition meetings.
While all this was going on, Captain Justin Lin defected to China by swimming from Jinmen (Quemoy) to Xiamen. And the People's Republic of China quite uncharacteristically silently welcomed him. Then they graciously sent him to an elite college in Beijing and after that one of the most elite graduate schools in the world. Lucky man, that Justin Lin.
Posted by: Randy at Jan 21, 2008 4:26:57 PM
for some extra insight: http://redsilhouettes.blogspot.com/2008/01/extra-extra.html
Posted by: Vivian Chen at Jan 22, 2008 1:01:28 AM
Reads like The Manchurian Candidate II.
How long before the conspiracy stories comes out?
Posted by: R at Jan 22, 2008 10:00:53 AM
Reads like The Manchurian Candidate II.
How long before the conspiracy stories comes out?
It does, doesn't it? The conspiracy stories are probably already out there. Vivian is right (see her link), it undoubtedly makes no difference WRT his job now, which is all that is really important to his employers. And having someone China obviously really likes in a top position at the IMF is probably a good thing. Still, the background is fascinating, especially because of the details left out.
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The election campaign going on when Carter broke relations was suspended, but the genie was already out of the bottle by that time and an amazing amount of hitherto unheard of criticism was published and passed around at hitherto unheard of large-scale opposition meetings.
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